The People's Bank of China (PBOC) kept the interest rate on 400 billion yuan ($59 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans unchanged at 2.75 percent on Thursday, matching market expectations.

The MLF operation was aimed at "keeping banking system liquidity reasonably ample," the central bank said in an online statement.

The MLF tool was introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity by allowing them to borrow from the central bank using securities as collateral.

The PBOC lowered the rate on MLF loans to financial institutions by 10 basis points last month to lower financing costs for the real economy.

Some traders and analysts expect some liquidity injection later this year due to heavy MLF maturity, which totaled 2.6 trillion yuan in the run-up to the year-end.

"We expect more reserve requirement ratio cuts in the coming months, although we see no urgency for more imminent interest rate cuts," said Tommy Xie, head of Greater China research at OCBC Bank.

(With input from agencies)