BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank continued to skip open market operations Tuesday, citing abundant liquidity in the banking system.

With 20 billion yuan (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars) of reverse repos maturing Tuesday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) effectively drained the same amount of liquidity from the market.

"Liquidity in the banking system is on a relatively high level," a PBOC statement said.

Through reverse repos, the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

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 last month.