New Zealand announces stimulus package as it faces recession

The package has been labelled by ministers as “the most significant peace-time economic plan in the country’s modern history”.

The package includes a wage guarantee for people who are required to self-isolate and who cannot work from home, and for those caring for relatives who are sick with the virus.

Other measures include:

• tax relief
• more money for low-income families and for those on social welfare
• bolstering the healthcare sector’s response to the virus, and
• support for the aviation industry.

“This package is one of the largest in the world on a per capita basis,” said Grant Robertson, New Zealand’s finance minister.

To date, New Zealand has only eight confirmed and two probable cases of COVID-19. However, strict travel restrictions, which require almost all arriving international travellers to self-isolate for 14 days, are expected to have a negative impact on business.

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