LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Banks' lending to businesses under
a government-backed COVID-19 loan scheme has exceeded 50 billion
pounds ($65 billion), while the cost of supporting furloughed
workers has increased to 33.8 billion pounds, weekly finance
ministry figures showed.
Lending across the government's three main programmes for
small, medium and large businesses rose to a total 50.69 billion
pounds as of Aug. 2, up from 49.43 billion pounds the week
before.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which has supported
9.6 million jobs and is the costliest single government COVID
relief measure, has risen to 33.8 billion pounds from 31.7
billion pounds a week earlier.
($1 = 0.7645 pounds)
(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)