Chile to create $2bn fund to help informal workers hurt by virus

Chile's president said the 'emergency measures' would benefit 2.6 million informal workers.

A woman wearing a preventive face shield attends the market, following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Santiago, Chile

Chilean President sabastin pinera on Wednesday announced a fresh two-billion-dollar fund to help support the country's informal workers as the COVID-19 out break continues to batter the South American nation's economy.

Chile's government had previously announced a nearly $12bn stimulus package, worth nearly 5 percent of all goods and services produced in the country, aimed at saving jobs and protecting small businesses.

The new measures announced by Pinera on Wednesday seek to aid those not covered by the previous package, a sign of the deepening crisis in Chile. The world's top copper producer has already confirmed more than 5,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, among the highest tallies in Latin America.

"Our commitment has been to ensure that this transitory crisis does not turn into a permanent one," Pinera said in a televised address.

Large swaths of Santiago, a city of six million, are under lockdown, and virtually all non-essential businesses have been closed for weeks.

The centre-right Pinera said the latest set of "emergency measures" would benefit 2.6 million informal workers who lack unemployment coverage. Many in the informal sector, who depend on crowded streets to hawk their wares and services, had fallen through the cracks of previous aid announcements.

This second phase of the stimulus also grants additional benefits to small business, including credit lines guaranteed by the state to help bridge the gap while most remain shuttered during the pandemic of COVID-19, the potentially lethal respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

Finance Minister Ignacio Briones, who spoke shortly after Pinera, said the new measures come with a daunting price tag, which would put the country's fiscal deficit at 8 percent of GDP.

"We have little margin to continue widening the deficit," he said in a televised statement.

Briones also announced several new belt-tightening measures to help pay for the added stimulus. He said the government would suspend all new contracts and salary increases and halt purchases of state vehicles and land.

Several of Chile's neighbours in South America have also promised to unleash unprecedented stimulus packages.

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra said Tuesday he was coordinating with several other nations in the region, including Chile, to request a line of credit from the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) for at least $15bn to combat the coronavirus.