Refer to the News Wire to answer two questions.

NEWS WIRE: RESERVE REQUIREMENTS

China Cuts Reserve Requirements

BeijingChina's central bank reduced the amount of reserves commercial banks are required to hold, freeing up money for lending in the latest easing measure to shore up the world's second-largest economy.

The People's Bank of China's percentage point cut in the reserve requirement lowers the reserve-requirement ratio, or RRR, to 11.5 percent for large banks. The move frees up about US$79 billion in additional funds that banks can now lend.

Source: News accounts of March 2020.

Instructions: In part a, enter your response as a whole number. In part b, round your response to one decimal place.

According to the News Wire,

1. by how much did excess reserves in China increase?

2. by how much did the lending capacity of Chinese banks increase as a result?