The corona virus also affects the economy in Germany. There are dramatic consequences that various measures are to counter in this country. An overview.
- The corona virus * has drastic economic consequences.
- The federal and state governments want to help with various measures.
- We give an overview of the Corona measures.
Berlin / Frankfurt - It has long been clear that the corona virus does not only have a health problem. The spreading pathogen also hits the economy hard. *
Above all, the fact that businesses and companies now have to close completely in many places affects the companies. The stock market is about to collapse *. This means that sales and orders no longer apply - companies and self-employed people are worried about their livelihood - employees are afraid of unemployment or are already unemployed.
Politicians now want to put together additional emergency packages with employers and unions - also to prevent major wage losses. Extended credit programs for companies have already started.
Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) sent a clear signal after a meeting with the social partners in Berlin on Wednesday: Companies and employees should not be let down in this unprecedented crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel * (CDU) set the economy and employees to tough weeks - she guaranteed in her television speech after a previously widespread speech: The Federal Government is doing everything it can to cushion the economic impact. An overview of measures:
Corona virus measures: continued payment of wages for childcare
In order to slow the spread of the corona virus, daycare centers and schools are dense in the countries until after Easter. This poses a great challenge for many employees with children: how should childcare be organized? In many cases, workers can work from home. But others cannot. And when they have to take care of the children themselves at home, they often cannot go to work. In this case, continued payment of wages applies, which, unlike in the case of illness, only applies for a few days.
Heil now announced that the Federal Cabinet would presumably enact a law next Monday that would allow employers to continue paying wages in the event of school and daycare closings. The companies should then be able to get the money back from the state. A graded process is planned for a limited period so that wages do not drop. It's about children under the age of twelve. Heil did not give any further details.
Economic measures because of Corona: increase in short-time allowance
The Bundestag and Bundesrat have decided on an extended short-time work allowance. This was already a key instrument in the 2008/2009 financial crisis to prevent mass layoffs. There is already a rush of companies nationwide in the Corona crisis. Specifically, more companies than before can apply for the benefit of the Federal Employment Agency (BA). The BA pays 60 percent of the lost net wages if a company sends employees on short-time work. The figure for workers with children is 67 percent. Heil pointed out that the money was there - the BA had a buffer of 26 billion euros.
The problem: unlike the financial crisis, the corona crisis runs across all industries. In many companies, 30 or 40 percent of employees would not be sent on short-time work, as they were then, but everyone, like DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann. This is another dimension. Some collective agreements, such as those in the metal and electronics industry, provide for short-time work to be increased - to almost 100 percent of net wages. Overall, however, only a minority of the employees in the collective agreement would receive a contractually agreed increase in addition to the short-time allowance, as the WSI trade union archive announced.
Therefore, countermeasures should now be taken. Politics and the social partners wanted to jointly compensate for wage gaps in short-time benefits, said Heil. The aim was to prevent wages from falling for a long time and causing hardship. Otherwise, this could particularly affect low-income earners, said Hoffmann. A joint statement by the ministries and the social partners stated that they would now hold "short-term" talks with the government's participation as to how a financial increase could be designed through collective bargaining solutions.
Corona Economic Measures: Unlimited Loan Programs
Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier and Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced unlimited credit programs last Friday - this is also unprecedented. This is to ensure the liquidity of companies that are facing financial difficulties. The state takes on more risks. That could cost "tens of billions", said Scholz. Companies can now apply for the aid loans through their house bank, as the state development bank KfW and the German credit industry announced on Wednesday.
KfW offers commercial banks to take on 70 to 80 percent of the risk with the help of state guarantees. This should make it easier to grant loans. "To alleviate the economic consequences of the corona crisis, the companies must now be helped quickly and easily," said the managing director of the Federal Association of German Banks, Christian Ossig. He assured a quick examination of applications: "The banks can handle this within a week." Many business associations demanded that the support should arrive quickly and unbureaucratically.
Economic measures because of Corona: relaxation of the rules for banks
In order to give banks more leeway for lending, the supervisors are also relieving the institutions : the so-called countercyclical capital buffer, which had only been increased to 0.25 percent last year, will be reduced to zero percent on April 1. This should apply at least until the end of the year. The ECB's banking supervision also temporarily allows financial institutions to fall below the requirements for capital and liquidity buffers. This results in a total capital relief of over 120 billion euros for Germany's banks. At the same time, central banks worldwide are providing the financial sector with huge sums of fresh liquidity.
There is no need to worry about the banks in Germany itself, emphasized the Financial Stability Committee, which is made up of representatives from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Bank and the Financial Supervisory Authority Bafin: "Overall, the German banking system is well capitalized and there are no liquidity bottlenecks."
Corona Economic Measures: Emergency Fund
In addition to the credit programs for companies, there should be direct help especially for freelancers and solo self-employed. A fund can particularly help mini-firms in which emergency loans from banks are no longer possible for business reasons, according to the BDI. Scholz had announced that the federal government was working on an emergency fund. The fund could already be available with direct aid this Thursday. That could cost billions again.
You can read the latest news about the corona virus in Germany in our news ticker.
* merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Frank Molter
