BEIJING - China's central bank on Tuesday conducted a 300-billion-yuan (about $41.83 billion) medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation to maintain ample liquidity in the country's banking system.

The MLF operation features a one-year maturity period and an interest rate of 2 percent, unchanged from the rate of the previous operation conducted last month, according to a statement on the website of the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

After the latest operation, the outstanding MLF balance stood at 4.09 trillion yuan.

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Tuesday's operation was a scaled-down rollover, as a total of 500 billion yuan of MLF will mature this month.

The central bank conducted 1.7 trillion yuan of outright reverse repos in January, which was equivalent to releasing a degree of medium-term liquidity in advance, said Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Golden Credit Rating.

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At present, medium-term liquidity in the market is kept abundant to support banks in increasing credit supply, facilitate government bond issuance, and stabilize market expectations, the analyst noted.