"Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to announce a $4 billion plan to protect tens of thousands of construction jobs today.
A spokesman for Mr Rudd says it will involve creating a partnership with the major banks to pay for commercial property projects like shopping centres.
He says taxpayers will provide $2 billion of the capital and the remainder will come from the big four banks.
The fund is expected to be up and running by March.
Mr Rudd's spokesman says the announcement will be made in Perth later today.
Last night, Mr Rudd attended a function in Queensland, where he said the global financial crisis is posing massive challenges.
He says the economic crisis has become an employment crisis which he is determined to weather.
"The Government is determined to chart a course through this time of crisis," he said.
"We'll do so by acting to support the stability of the financial system. We'll do so by acting to support the continued flow of credit to the Australian economy."
Mr Rudd said the Government is determined to fill the gap by providing critical infrastructure.
"Our roads, our ports, our bridges, our railways, the needs of broadband, the needs of the new communications technology, our new hospitals, our new universities, our TAFEs our schools, to lay out a greater investment than what would otherwise be called up by government at a time like this to fill that gap," he said"
Can anyone suggest the likely impact of this on either development focused REITs [e.g. MIX] or infrastructure funds [e.g.AIX, BBI etc]?
My reading, which is pretty much most of the coverage thus far [through Google], is that companies which may have had difficult refinancing will be able to do so through this Government plan. Assuming this is the case, surely some REITs and infrastructure stocks will be re-rated.
