Australia’s banks have deferred payments on at least AUD $200 billion in loans to help customers through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Australian Banking Association says 100,000 loans had been deferred just in the last week, half of them mortgages, bringing total deferrals to 643,000.
They say the surge in demand for assistance from banks shows that the economic impacts continue to be felt, and by no means is the nation through this crisis.
Data out earlier in the week showed almost a million jobs had been lost since much of the economy went into lockdown in the middle of March.
[Source; Reuters]
