BEIJING - China's central bank drained 3.5 billion yuan ($497 million) from the market Tuesday, with more medium-term lending facility (MLF) maturing than conducted.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) injected a total of 400 billion yuan into the market via one-year MLF at the interest rate of 3.25 percent, 5 basis points lower than the previous MLF, the PBOC said on its website.

With a total of 403.5 billion yuan of MLF maturing Tuesday, this led to a net withdrawal of 3.5 billion yuan from the market.

Meanwhile, the PBOC skipped reverse repo operations on Tuesday.

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.

China vowed to keep its prudent monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonably ample level in 2019.