Prolonged confinement in France: forecasts down, support measures strengthened

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With the extension of containment, the government finally expects growth to decline by 8% in 2020 and not by 6% as announced last week. Several announcements were made by the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire and that of Action and Public Accounts, Gérard Darmanin.

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The first announcement for employees is that on partial unemployment. 24 billion euros have already been allocated to short-time working. A system which concerns 8 million employees and which will be reinforced.

For modest employees, who are driving the economy today, cashiers, truck drivers. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, spoke of an increase in their income because they are not enough.

Fragility for more than 300,000 companies

Second announcement for companies in difficulty, such as hotels and restaurants, the deferral of social charges could turn into cancellation. Retail rents could also be paid out of the solidarity fund. " The large real estate companies can and must do more to help those who cannot pay their rents today, " insisted Le Maire.

More than 300,000 fragile businesses have already called on this solidarity fund, the total amount of which will be increased to 7 billion euros. The eligibility rules for this fund will also be relaxed.

" Each day, each week of confinement (...) actually makes public finances worse ," insisted Gérald Darmanin on France Info.

#Coronavirus # COVID19 | Support for #entreprises - Simplified and reinforced partial unemployment: the State reimburses #entreprises, for salaries up to 6,927 euros gross monthly, ie 4.5 times the minimum wage.
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