BORROWING limits imposed on the Welsh Government by Westminster are "arbitrary" and must be relaxed to help Wales out of economic crisis caused by coronavirus, says finance minister Rebecca Evans.

Loosening the borrowing restriction is among measures the minister called for during the daily Welsh Government coronavirus briefing, as she warned of a "really rough time" ahead.

Another fiscal demand of the UK Government from Wales is for the ability to switch capital funding - reserved for infrastructure or building projects - to day-to-day revenue funding, to help meet the 'running costs' associated with the response to coronavirus.

In Wales the aim remains to "preserve as many jobs as we can through our measures, so businesses are still there ready to trade", said Ms Evans.

"We have tried as best we can to help businesses to hibernate, but evidence tells us we are in for a really difficult time," she warned.

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Ms Evans said the Welsh Government has had to "balance really difficult decisions everyday", guided "by a sense of what is fair when public finances are under such pressure".

But she said it has worked with the constraints of "rigid financial rules imposed on Wales by the UK Government.

The Welsh Government is today publishing details of its supplementary budget, which Ms Evans said usually involves "modest adjustments" to an overall budget that had already been set.

But coronavirus has "required levels of government investment at a pace and scale without rival in post-war Europe", she said. To date, £2.4 billion has been dedicated to the Welsh Government response.

Ms Evans called for a "long term fiscal stimulus" from the UK Government to support economic and social recovery. But this must be "fair" and leave no-one behind - and she warned against more years of austerity which would be a "devastating insult" to the efforts everyone has made.

On the lifting of lockdown restrictions, Ms Evans said public health must be the guide. She said the Welsh Government does not have the resources to implement its own job retention scheme, but the UK Government must not try to "force its hand" with regard to support available through its Job Retention Scheme - which will continue into August and in a different form into October.

The Welsh Government is "seeking to influence the shape of the scheme going forward", said Ms Evans.

"It is incumbent upon the UK Government to take decisions on the Job Retention Scheme that are cognisant of what is happening across the UK."