(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- The People's Bank of China has added CNY500 billion (USD71.3 billion) to a special fund set aside for financial institutions to re-lend central bank money to firms fighting the Covid-19 outbreak.

The central bank also discounted the rate for the loans by 0.25 percentage points to 2.5 percent, it said on WeChat. PBOC set aside CNY300 billion for such loans yesterday and allocated a further CNY100 billion for rural banks and CNY300 billion for companies battling the epidemic in smaller cities.

The money set aside for these companies is usually issued to banks to meet monetary policy goals. Lenders are dishing out the cash in loans to companies in the agriculture, foreign trade, tourism, entertainment, accommodation, catering and transport sectors, which are at high risk of being hampered or have already been troubled by the outbreak.

Editor: James Boynton