British finance minister Rishi Sunak will announce his next moves to prevent a wave of job cuts from snowballing into a full-blown unemployment crisis in the world's sixth biggest economy. Reuters reported.

He is already on course to take state borrowing to World War Two levels as he subsidises 9 million jobs — equivalent to more than a third of private-sector workers — alongside other emergency measures.

Britain, with a toll of close to 45,000 coronavirus-linked deaths, has been hit harder by the epidemic than any other European country. For the worst affected sectors of an economy that shrank by 25 per cent over March and April, recovery remains a long way off.