The government of South Africa has set up a $26 billion response plan to curb the covid-19 and revive the economy. The information was reported on April 21 by the president, Cyril Ramaphosa (pictured).

According to the Head of State, this amount, which represents 10% of the country’s GDP, will help stabilize the economy and combat the decline in supply and demand, protect jobs and finance small businesses.

At the social level, the response plan will devote $2.6 billion to the most vulnerable through subsidies and the distribution of 250,000 food packages to citizens in need over the next two weeks.

Cyril Ramaphosa says addressing the impact of the coronavirus requires an extraordinary budget. The global health crisis is a major blow to South Africa, which entered recession in the fourth quarter of 2019 and particularly threatens its two main sources of foreign exchange, the mining sector and tourism.

After recording weak economic growth of 0.7% in 2018, South Africa's economy is expected to shrink by 5.8% in 2020, according to IMF projections.

 André Chadrak