Germany to invest €12.4 billion to ease coronavirus impact

The investment will be made between 2021 and 2024 to help companies and workers affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The Government has also eased rules for short-term work compensation.

Mds

9 mar 2020 - 19:00

Germany unveils its plan to fight the economic impact of coronavirus. The biggest European economy will invest an additional 12.4 billion euros between 2021 and 2024 to ease the effect of the epidemic in businesses and workers.

Additionally, the country will loosen rules for short-term work compensation, making it easer for big corporations to offset wages when they are forced to temporarily stop work. “No company in Germany should go bankrupt and no job should get lost due to the coronavirus,” the government said in a statement.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, Health Minister Jens Spahn, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and the leaders of the three coalition parties, CDU, CSU and SPD took part in the meeting held on Sunday.

Last Friday, Deutsche Lufthansa slashed capacity by 50% and on Monday, the virus crisis lead to fall in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: the DAX Index slumped by more than 8% at one point during the day.