SHANGHAI: China`s central banl< has made $17 billion available to more than a dozen financial institutions to help boost the economy, it said Wednesday, a day after injecting nearly $100bn into two government policy banks.

The People`s Bank of China (PBoC) provided 110bn yuan ($17.19bn) to 14 financial institutions through its medium-term lending facility to maintain liquidity in the banking system, it said in a statement on its official microblog.

The PBoC encouraged banks to use the funds to support small companies, agriculture and `weak links` in the economy, it said. China`s economy, the world`s second-largest, expanded 7.4 per cent last year, its weakest since 1990, and has slowed further this year, growing 7pc in each of the first two quarters.-AFP