(Bloomberg) -- The People’s Bank of China made the biggest single injection of Medium-term Lending Facility funds, in a move that analysts described as further evidence of a shift to monetary easing.

The PBOC skipped adding funds via seven-day reverse repurchase agreements on Monday while offering 502 billion yuan ($74.2 billion) of its loans with one-year maturity to major banks in the open market.

The central bank’s move toward monetary easing from the current neutral stance is evident with the size of the liquidity injection, and follows reports last week that the central bank asked lenders to invest in lower-graded corporate bonds in exchange for such funds, said Ming Ming, head of fixed-income research at Citic Securities Co. in Beijing.

Ming said the PBOC wants to offset the impact from previously tight credit, and he predicts the PBOC to cut reserve-requirement ratios one or two more times this year with the next one coming in the third quarter.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Yinan Zhao in Beijing at yzhao300@bloomberg.net;Jing Zhao in Beijing at jzhao231@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Henry Hoenig

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