BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank Wednesday injected 257.5 billion yuan (37.8 billion U.S. dollars) of funds into the market via the targeted medium-term lending facility (TMLF) to maintain liquidity.

The funds have a maximum maturity of three years and an annual interest rate of 3.15 percent, 15 basis points lower than the existing medium-term lending facility (MLF), the People's Bank of China said on its website.

The TMLF tool was introduced in December 2018 to encourage loans to small and private businesses.

Large commercial banks, joint-stock banks and major city commercial banks that lend heavily to the real economy and meet macro prudent requirements can apply for the TMLF, according to the PBOC.

During the past week, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, had a combined net injection of 1.16 trillion yuan via open market operations, the largest weekly amount in two years.

China will cut the reserve requirement ratio for RMB deposits by another 0.5 percentage points on Jan. 25, following a reduction of 0.5 percentage points on Jan. 15, which is expected to offset liquidity fluctuations before the Spring Festival, according to a previous announcement by the central bank.