Japan's central bank has been encouraging financial institutions to lend more with a new stimulus package.

The bank has doubled to 20 trillion yen the amount of cheap short-term loans it is offering banks at an interest rate of 0.1%.

The scheme was first introduced in December to try to tackle the deflation which is threatening Japan's economic recovery.

Japan’s economy only expanded by 0.9% between October and December of last year, down from its initial estimate of 1.1%.