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Poland to throw firms multi-billion lifeline amid epidemic

08.04.2020 18:45
Poland’s prime minister on Wednesday unveiled plans to throw a lifeline worth at least PLN 100 billion (USD 24 bn, EUR 22 bn) to businesses hit by the coronavirus epidemic.
PM Mateusz Morawiecki
PM Mateusz Morawiecki Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara

Mateusz Morawiecki said the "financial shield" aimed to help companies maintain jobs and prevent mass bankruptcies.

The aid package is worth the equivalent of 4.5 percent of Poland’s GDP, state news agency PAP reported.

"We want to be ahead of the game and today we are proposing a ‘financial shield’ which is … unprecedented because we are directing at least PLN 100 billion straight to companies,” Morawiecki told a press conference.

PAP reported that the government estimated the aid package could help around 670,000 businesses.

At the end of last month, Poland’s president signed into effect a massive relief and stimulus plan aiming to shore up the economy and shield the nation from the impact of an intensifying coronavirus outbreak.

Morawiecki has told reporters that the total value of his government’s “anti-crisis shield,” which also seeks to guarantee the security of the country’s financial system, will come to PLN 212 billion (EUR 47 billion, USD 52 billion), an amount equivalent to around 10 percent of Poland’s GDP.

A total of 5,205 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease in Poland, with 159 deaths from the coronavirus so far, officials said on Wednesday afternoon.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP