The People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Tuesday announced that it will publish monthlypledged supplementary lending (PSL) data starting from June, a move to improvemonetary policy transparency.

The PSL program, initiated in 2014, is designed to help the central bank better targetlonger-term lending rates and boost liquidity to specific sectors by offering low-cost loansto select lenders.

In the first five months of this year, it provided PSL of 262.8 billion yuan (42.9 billion U.S.dollars) to financial institutions to fund residential renovation projects, the PBOC said in astatement.

It provided PSL of 383.1 billion yuan to select financial institutions last year andoutstanding PSL had reached 645.9 billion yuan by the end of May, it noted.

The interest rate of PSL was reduced to 3.1 percent from 4.5 percent, the latest effort tosupport renovation projects in China and lower investment costs, said the central bank.

The PBOC has managed to bring down short-term interbank lending rates with a series ofopen market operations, but longer-term borrowing costs remained high in China.Companies will take a hit from continued economic weakness and high financing costs.