Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, December 11, 2020 in Paris.

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Stephane Lemouton-POOL / SIPA

The closure of shopping centers, announced Friday by Jean Castex, costs 500 million euros more per month to public finances, said the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, this Monday on RTL, specifying that the invoice was indeed lower than confinement.

"The curfew costs us roughly - solidarity fund and other measures - 6 billion euros per month", while "total confinement, with the closure of shops and schools, is 15 billion euros per month ”, ie“ 9 billion euros more ”, he justified.

"Limited" damage

So, by renouncing the introduction of a new confinement, "we limit the damage to public finances," he said.

“The measure we have taken with businesses is 500 million euros more.

(…) They are not at all the same orders of magnitude, you do things with 9 billion.

You can renovate hospitals, nurseries, schools, universities, ”he added.

Nearly 27,000 businesses eligible for the solidarity fund

On Friday, the government announced that "non-food shopping centers with an area of ​​more than 20,000 square meters" would be forced to close from Sunday to avoid a resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic.

As a result, said the minister, 27,000 more businesses will be eligible for the solidarity fund, which consists of aid of 10,000 euros per month or compensation of 20% of 2019 turnover, up to a limit of 200,000 euros. per month.

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