BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank continued to skip open market operations on Tuesday, citing abundant liquidity in the banking system.

The People's Bank of China said liquidity had been at a relatively high level, and could offset factors such as reverse repos maturing that drain liquidity from the market.

A reverse repo is a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The central bank has skipped reverse repos for five consecutive work days.

China will keep its prudent monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonably ample level in 2019, according to the annual Central Economic Work Conference held in December last year.