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Eurogroup Strikes Half-Trillion Euro Deal to Help Members Cope with COVID-19

VOA News

   Finance ministers from the 19 eurozone countries Thursday agreed on a
   package worth more than half a trillion euros to help companies,
   workers and health care systems mitigate the economic consequences of
   the coronavirus outbreak.

   Mario Centeno, president of the Eurogroup of eurozone ministers, called
   the package of measures "totally unprecedented."

   "The package we approved today is of a size close to 4 percent of
   European GDP," he said. "Plus, the automatic stabilizers that are quite
   powerful to protect European economies in case of crisis. This is
   totally unprecedented. We have never ever reacted so quickly to a
   crisis as this one."

   The measures provide for hard-hit Italy and Spain to quickly gain
   access to the eurozone's bailout fund for up to 240 billion euros, as
   long as the money is used for the needs of their health care systems.

   Centeno said at a video news conference that countries are expected to
   identify enough health costs to access the money.

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