GENEVA - THE Swiss government will unveil new measures to boost the economy should the country plunge into a deeper recession than expected, Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said in remarks published on Sunday.

The economics ministry had earlier projected that the economy here would shrink by 0.8 per cent in 2009, with a recovery not seen until 2010.

'Should these forecasts fail to materialise, we would under those circumstances put in place a third aid package,' he said in an interview with Swiss Sunday newspaper Sonntag.

Without giving details, he said the measures could be put in place 'relatively quickly.'

The Swiss government in mid-October announced an aid package worth almost US$60 billion (S$87.6 billion) to restore confidence in the country's biggest bank UBS which has lost billions on the United States home loan crisis and the ensuing financial turmoil.

Merz said that together with Economics Minister Doris Leuthard, he was working on a second aid package worth 'a few hundred million' which would target the construction industry as well as the export industry. -- AFP