A video grab from footage broadcast by the UK Parliament's Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) shows Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak as he gives an update of the economy in the House of Commons in London on November 5, 2020. AFP PHOTO / P
LONDON: British finance minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday extended the coronavirus furlough scheme, which provides 80% of the pay of temporarily laid-off workers, until the end of March and would provide billions of pounds of other support for the economy.
"To give people across the UK certainty over the winter, I can announce today that the furlough scheme will not be extended for one month - it will be extended until the end of March," Sunak told parliament.
Earlier on Thursday, the Bank of England said it was increasing the size of its government bond purchases by a further 150 billion pounds ($196 billion), helping the government to fund the surge in public spending.
As well as the furlough extension, he increased support for self-employed people and raised guaranteed funding for the United Kingdom's devolved administrations by 2 billion pounds to 16 billion pounds.
Sunak said he would review the furlough policy in January.
