China's central bank injected cash into the country's interbank money market through reverse repos for a third straight day on Thursday, leaving rates unchanged.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) injected 240 billion yuan ($33.49 billion) via seven-day reverse repurchase agreements at 2.20%, unchanged from its previous operation, it said in a statement published on its website.

With no reverse repos maturing on Thursday, the move injected a net 240 billion yuan (27.30 billion pounds) into the market.

The central bank said the additional funds were intended to counteract the impact from factors including government bond issuance and corporate income tax settlement and in order to keep banking system liquidity "reasonably ample".

(Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)