WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday announced the establishment of temporary U.S. dollar liquidity arrangements with the Reserve Bank of Australia and eight other central banks around the world amid coronavirus uncertainty.

"These facilities... are designed to help lessen strains in global U.S. dollar funding markets, thereby mitigating the effects of these strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses, both domestically and abroad," the Fed said in a statement.

These facilities will support the provision of U.S. dollar liquidity in amounts up to 60 billion dollars each for the central banks of Australia, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, and 30 billion dollars each for the central banks of Denmark, Norway and New Zealand, the statement said, adding these U.S. dollar liquidity arrangements will be in place for at least six months.

The Fed has standing U.S. dollar liquidity arrangements with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the Swiss National Bank.

The latest move came after the Fed on Sunday cut its benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point to near zero and pledged to increase its bond holdings by at least 700 billion dollars amid mounting fears over the coronavirus outbreak.