BEIJING -- China's interbank money market transactions climbed 17 percent year-on-year in March to hit 118 trillion yuan ($17.99 trillion), data from the People's Bank of China shows.

Specifically, pledged repo saw 106.8 trillion yuan in transactions last month, up 20.9 percent year-on-year, and outright repo transactions reached 557.58 billion yuan, rising 14.4 percent year-on-year, according to the bank.

The interbank lending transaction volume came in at 10.6 trillion yuan, down 11.4 percent year-on-year.

In March, the monthly weighted average interest rate for interbank lending was 2.07 percent, up 1 basis point from the previous month.

The monthly weighted average interest rate for pledged repos was 2.08 percent, rising 2 basis points from February, the data shows.