Yesterday afternoon, the head of the Ministry of Production (Produce), José Luis Chicoma, reported that the Government is studying the possibility of extending the grace period for Reactiva Peru payments.
“We are in the evaluation process with the MEF and the BCR (Central Reserve Bank) for the extension of the grace period of Reactivate Peru, which is something that the productive sector expects ”, explained the official.
It should be remembered that this program – which issued S / 60 billion to avoid the absolute bankruptcy of all national production – must be paid from May of this year.
Precisely, said month represents for the Minister of Economy, Waldo Mendoza, “the litmus test”, recognizing that thousands of companies have not recovered at all and were forced to paralyze their production with the new quarantine.
“Some companies have not fully recovered, that is why the Government is designing the reprogramming of these credits for both Cofide and Reactiva Peru,” he told the Foreign Press Association in Peru (APEP).
Millionaires loses
Mendoza estimated that there is a risk that 15% of Reactiva’s loans will not be paid by the beneficiary companies – approximately S / 8.1 billion -, an amount that must be assumed by the State and returned to the BCRP.
The representative of the Executive recalled that the loans executed by Reactiva Peru are similar to 8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and here the BCRP applied an interest rate of 0.5% per year, the lowest in the State.
Likewise, the minister defined this scenario as “a potential loss” for the public coffers that will have to drag on for years, and argued that this cost should be compared with that of not having acted on time, which “would have multiplied” the S / 8.100 million projected to pay off.
Calculation. Minister is optimistic about poverty figures. Photo: Antonio Melgarejo / The Republic
More rescheduling
Waldo Mendoza added that to face the second wave of COVID-19, work is also being done on rescheduling FAE-Mype payments.
Thus, together with Reactiva, they intend to re-plan loans for two years for companies that invest in “large” infrastructure projects, such as the expansion of the Jorge Chávez airport and the construction of the ports of Chancay and Salaverry, among others.
“With these measures we hope to alleviate the situation of companies (…) We are confident that with the macroeconomic recovery that we expect for this year, companies will get out of this complicated area in which they find themselves,” he said.
Panorama
By last, The head of the MEF highlighted that the country’s fiscal situation was bad during 2020, reaching a level of collection not seen since the eighties.
“This year we are going to have a deficit of around 5% of GDP and we hope to reduce it gradually,” he concluded.
More figures
Spectrum. Labor informality worsened with quarantines and could have reached 80% of workers, Mendoza said.
Optimism. He also estimated that poverty in the country, after rising by 10% in 2020 (a third of the 33 million inhabitants are in this situation), would fall between 4 or 5% by the year of our bicentennial.
Rise. Waldo Mendoza added that the public debt went from 27 to 37% of GDP.
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