SHANGHAI, March 16 (Reuters) - China's central bank lent 327 billion yuan ($51.67 billion) to financial institutions on Friday via its 1-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) with rates unchanged, it said in a statement.

The new MLF injection exceeded the value of such loans maturing on the same day. A batch of 1-year MLF worth 189.5 billion yuan was set to expire on Friday.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in the same statement that it skipped reverse repos on Friday morning.

On Dec. 14, the PBOC raised the interest rates on liquidity tools, including the one-year MLF, to 3.25 percent. ($1 = 6.3289 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Winni Zhou and John Ruwitch Editing by Eric Meijer)