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  • Coronavirus: The EU mobilizes 7.5 billion for a Fund to help SMEs

The coronavirus epidemic threatens to provoke a crisis similar to the financial crisis of 2008 in the absence of an urgent and coordinated response, warned on Tuesday the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde , during a conference with the leaders of the European Union (EU).

"A scenario that will remind many of us of the great financial crisis of 2008," the banker said, a source familiar with Lagarde's comments has informed Bloomberg , for whom, with the appropriate response , the impact will likely be temporary.

The president of the ECB said during the conference that the entity is examining all its tools, particularly those that would facilitate cheap financing and liquidity.

However, according to the source consulted, Lagarde has warned that central bank measures can only work if governments support them with measures to ensure that banks lend to businesses in the affected areas.

The Governing Council of the ECB will meet this Thursday in Frankfurt, after the rest of the main central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, have taken emergency measures to combat the impact of the coronavirus.

Both have urgently lowered and without prior notice the interest rates of their respective currencies. First it was the Fed in the US and this same Wednesday the British central bank has done it. The reduction in both cases has reached half a percentage point.

Within the EU, the European Commission, through its president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Tuesday that it will immediately mobilize up to 7.5 billion euros of the Structural Funds to create a mechanism that alleviates the economic effects of the coronavirus In SMEs, avoid liquidity problems and help the health sector.

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  • Christine Lagarde
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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