WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Group of 20 nations must offer poorer countries a longer freeze in debt payments and other help to protect the global economy from long-term scarring inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading business and labor groups said.

Warning of job losses, increasing poverty, rising child mortality and high business failure rates in poorer countries, the groups urged G20 finance ministers, who will meet by teleconference next week, to take immediate action.

“The required contribution from the world’s leading economies is minute compared to the social and economic costs of inaction,” the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Union Confederation, and Global Citizen, a group pushing to end extreme poverty by 2030, said in an open letter.

The groups noted a worrying ‘stimulus gap’ with high-income countries having spent some 8% of GDP in economic stimulus to mitigate pandemic’s impact, compared to just 1.3% for low-income countries.

They called for International Monetary Fund members to replenish the Fund’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust and allow the IMF to extend a freeze in debt payments by the poorest countries through April 2022.

G20 finance officials are expected to back an extension of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative by six months when they meet next Tuesday, but not an expansion to include middle income countries.