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LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 08 April 2020

In brief: Paraguay moves to protect livelihoods

* The director of economic benefits at Paraguay’s social security institute (IPS), Pedro Halley, has outlined how a government provision of US$100m to subsidise formal workers’ salaries during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic will be distributed. According to Halley, an estimated 20,000 formal workers, representing approximately 5% of the formal private sector workforce, have had their jobs suspended since the government began enforcing strict containment measures to slow the spread of the disease. Halley explained that the IPS will compensate 50% of formal workers’ salaries (for those earning up to twice the minimum wage), with the compensation to be disbursed in a single payment. The number of suspended workers is expected to keep rising, but the IPS says it has the capacity to attend to 350,000 people. Meanwhile, the government is also providing a G$548,000 (US$83.77) benefit to 1.5m of the country’s informal workers (who represent about 70% of the workforce), with registration for this monthly benefit due to open today (8 April).

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