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| - Canada will offer a 75 percent wage subsidy for small and medium business employees affected by the coronavirus crisis, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday. The news followed an announcement that the Bank of Canada is lowering a key interest rate to 0.25 percent as part of a drive to cushion the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The wage subsidy for qualifying businesses -- up from 10 percent announced last week -- is for up to three months retroactive to March 15, Trudeau's office said. "Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and... are facing economic hardship and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic," Trudeau said. "That is why we are taking action now to help them get the financial help they need to protect their workers and pay their bills." Other measures Trudeau announced include various loans, grants, lines of credit and tax deferral programs. The Trudeau administration has injected Can$107 billion into the economy to help businesses and households affected by the killer pandemic sweeping the globe. More than one million Canadians have lost their jobs since last week due to the brutal economic downturn caused by the pandemic. The Bank of Canada said that the "unscheduled" cut in the so-called overnight lending rate "brings the policy rate to its effective lower bound and is intended to provide support to the Canadian financial system and the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic." The outbreak "is having serious consequences for Canadians and for the economy, as is the abrupt decline in world oil prices," the bank said in explaining its interest rate decision. The world's fourth-largest oil producer, Canada has been devastated by oil prices that have fallen as economies grind to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic. Its western oil-producing province of Alberta has been particularly hard hit. The goal of the rate cut "is to support the financial system in its central role of providing credit in the economy, and to lay the foundation for the economy's return to normalcy," the bank said. jl-dw/ch/ft
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