The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) injected extra cash into the financial system on Monday as panic selling across global markets driven by the coronavirus threatened to drain liquidity and push up borrowing costs.
In its daily money market operation the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) pumped A$5.9 billion ($3.64 billion) into the system through regular repurchase agreements, well above its original intention of A$2.5 billion.
That followed an injection of A$8.8 billion on Friday which had left commercial banks with A$10.7 billion of surplus cash held by the RBA.
Monday's operations ranged from 4 days to 93 days, with A$4.6 billion going at the longest maturity.
Earlier, the RBA said it will be conducting one-month and three-month repurchase (repo) operations until further notice.
It will also conduct repo operations of six-months maturity or longer at least weekly, as long as market conditions warrant, as part of a package of liquidity measures.
(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
