The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday and Ottawa moved to strengthen its response to the new coronavirus outbreak. The Globe's Matt Lundy and Bill Curry write that the BOC matched an emergency cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve the previous day in response to growing economic concerns about the outbreak that has spread to more than 80 countries. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland chaired the first meeting of a cabinet committee to address Canada's response to the coronavirus. The committee has a mandate to monitor both the health and economic impacts of the virus and to mull "all possible measures" to prevent and limit its spread in Canada. The BOC trimmed its overnight lending rate by half a percentage point to 1.25 per cent. The cut echoes a 50-basis-point cut the Fed unveiled Tuesday. It was the BOC's largest rate cut since 2009 and its first in more than four years. The bank also signalled the potential for additional rate cuts to mitigate the "material negative shock" that COVID-19 poses to the economy. Canada's major banks moved later Wednesday to reduce their prime lending rates from 3.95 per cent to 3.45 per cent.