China’s central bank injected $47bn into its financial system on Thursday, its largest intervention in nearly a year, in an effort to calm investor fears that Beijing’s crackdown on debt-fuelled growth would put a break on the country’s rapid expansion.

Yields on China’s benchmark 10-year sovereign bond had risen above 4 per cent this week, a level not seen since 2014, following a sell-off that began following last month’s Communist Party Congress, where the outgoing People’s Bank of China chief warned of the risks from excessive debt and speculative investment.

Although Thursday’s Rmb310bn injection saw the yield eased to 3.98 per cent from an intraday day peak of 4.015 per cent, analysts warned the PBoC had no clear target and that yields could rise beyond 4 per cent again without further easing.