BEIJING, April 9 -- China's central bank announced on Thursday to inject funds into the market through a reverse repurchase agreement (repo) to meet cash demand.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, pumped 15 billion yuan (2.46 billion U.S. dollars) into the money market through a seven-day reverse repo, a process in which the central bank purchases securities from banks with an agreement to resell them at a future date.

Last week, the market gained 5 billion yuan in net money supply.

The central bank usually carries out such operations on Tuesday and Thursday morning each week.

The latest seven-day reverse repo on Thursday was priced to yield 3.45 percent, according to a statement on the PBOC website.

The benchmark overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one other, shrank 8.4 basis points to 2.6 percent on Thursday's interbank market.