The federal government has already received a lot of money back from its financial aid – probably because many companies had only taken out the loans as a precautionary measure. Money flowed back even from the gastro.
Posted today at 5:25 pm—
–Closed shops were not only part of everyday life in Switzerland during the second wave. A number of retail companies took out emergency loans.
Photo: Alessandro della Valle (Keystone)
They were the economic emergency aid from the very beginning: the Covid loans. On March 20 last year, in the middle of the first corona wave, the Federal Council decided on a program to support the liquidity of companies. Almost 140,000 companies took advantage of the help – but apparently many are no longer dependent on it.
The program with the Covid loans ran from March to the end of July 2020. A lot of money flowed: the Federal Council provided for 40 billion francs. In the end, the companies took out around 17 billion francs in loans. The banks played an important role in this: they had to process the loans, which were guaranteed by the federal government.
2.1 billion repaid
Anyone who has taken out such a loan must repay it within eight years. Last December, Parliament decided to extend the deadline by three years. Now it is clear: Thousands of companies have already been able to repay their loan significantly earlier.
Companies have repaid almost 10,000 loans in full. Partially reimbursed loans do not appear in the federal statistics. A total of almost 2.1 billion Swiss francs flowed back again. What is striking is that the majority of this sum was repaid last year, namely 1.6 billion Swiss francs.
So it turns out that quite a few companies have withdrawn the loans as a precautionary measure for fear of even greater financial hardship due to the corona pandemic. That also makes sense: Back then, no one could foresee exactly how the economy would develop and what restrictions the Federal Council would introduce to combat the pandemic.
50 million from the catering industry
The fact that many companies can repay their loans also shows that the Swiss economy has so far proven to be quite robust during the Corona crisis.
Surprisingly, even catering companies have repaid their loans in full. Because the measures taken by the Federal Council hit the industry hard. The companies have already been able to repay around 50 million francs. But what also shows: That is only 5 percent of the total volume of loans in this industry. In other sectors, such as wholesaling and retailing, the rate is almost 15 percent.
The Covid loan program has now been replaced. So there is Hardship aids for sectors that are particularly affected. For many companies, short-time work compensation is also an important tool in order not to have to file for bankruptcy.
Posted today at 5:25 pm
Found a bug? Report it now.
–
