FILE PHOTO: Bridgewater Associates Chairman Ray Dalio attends the China Development Forum in Beijing, China March 23, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

(Reuters) - Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates LP, said on Thursday corporations in the United States will lose as much as $4 trillion due to the economic damage from coronavirus outbreak.

The Trump administration is pushing for a package of some $1.3 trillion in aid to help businesses and individual Americans devastated by the virus.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Sunday took aggressive action to buttress the economy and financial system, slashing interest rates to near zero, pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in asset purchases and backstopping foreign authorities with the offer of cheap dollar financing.

The fiscal stimulus package should be $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion as a minimum, depending on the form of the financial relief such as loan guarantees and credits, Dalio told CNBC in an interview cnb.cx/2vDGIKQ.

“We’re in an economic downturn. What you’re seeing is the inability of central banks to stimulate monetary policy in a way that is normal,” Dalio said in the interview.

Central banks around the world have slashed interest rates in the past few weeks and have provided additional easing in some cases to try to help alleviate the threat to the world economy from the coronavirus pandemic.

Dalio also estimated that global corporate losses will amount to $12 trillion due to the pandemic.

Hedge fund giant Bridgewater, famous for making money during the 2008 financial crisis, has posted double-digit losses so far this year amid sharp market declines sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, according to a note sent to clients on Wednesday and seen by Reuters.