Gov’t seeking to stem a tide of closures

Faced with the prospect of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises sinking under the weight of liabilities as a result of the pandemic's adverse financial impact, the government is seeking ways to stem the tide which is threatening to become its worst nightmare. 

The latest measure it is deploying to this end is subsidizing the loan installments of businesses after the current moratorium on payments ends. 

More specifically, the initiative will aim for a smooth transition of the companies that have been under-operating for more then 10 months and have entered into a payment moratorium. This will be done with the state undertaking to pay part of their loan installments, in a scheme modeled on the Bridge (Gefyra) program, through which it subsidizes corporate and mortgage loans with the primary residence as collateral.

The measure is expected to be...