Faced with the new health restrictions that came into force on Monday, January 3, the government has stepped up support measures for businesses.
The government must once again deal with the economic uncertainties linked to the coronavirus. The Minister of the Economy received the sectors affected by the health restrictions with the Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne and the Minister of Tourism and SMEs Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
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Partial activity will thus be reimbursed at 100% with no out-of-pocket expenses for companies which have lost 65% of their turnover (against 80% previously). All companies that are subject to health restrictions will also have access to this partially supported activity “for example a bar which can no longer serve its customers standing up, and a fortiori discotheques“, Specified the Minister of the Economy.
Second device: support for fixed costs, since the access threshold will be lowered to 50% loss of turnover, against 65% previously. The benefit of this system will be broadened since it then concerned events, caterers and indoor leisure. All tourism-related activities (hotels, travel agencies, etc.) will now be concerned with an accelerated reimbursement procedure for amounts less than 50,000 euros. A delay that will be counted “in days and no longer in weeks», Explains Bruno Le Maire.
These measures are activated “right now“, Further clarified the minister, with texts which must be published so that”the money arrives very quickly“. The order of magnitude of these measurements is according to Bercy “the hundred thousand euros. We are very far from the billions of euros which were the unit of account for ‘whatever the cost’“. Bruno Le Maire explains that 1.8 billion euros from the emergency fund to respond to the health crisis have not been spent and could be used for this purpose.
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Upcoming decisions on state guaranteed loans
“We have helped all struggling economic sectors since day one of this crisis. We will always be there for the companies, for the employees who are affected by the consequences of this crisis. We first used an ‘whatever the cost’ device and in September we switched to a targeted device», Explained Bruno Le Maire.
The affected sectors have expressed their wish to benefit from exemptions of charge, which will be “examined with the greatest care», Further specifies Bruno Le Maire. The maturities of government guaranteed loans will also be reviewed “in the coming hours“.
While the wave of the Omicron variant passes over France at a rate of more than 200,000 daily cases in recent days, new health measures have indeed come into force on Monday, January 3. Among them, the ban on consuming a lot in bars and restaurants, but also the ban on eating and drinking in public places such as cinemas, theaters and sports facilities.
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Light treatment in transport, especially trains and domestic flights, where the sale of food and drink is prohibited, but not consumption. Gatherings are limited to 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 outdoors, except for political meetings. So many measures that raise the risk of a slowdown in activity in the sectors of culture, transport, hotel and catering and sports. The month of January promises to be once again a high-risk period for these sectors, some of which are already reviewing their business plans.