Government relaunches economy

 In News

Portugal’s Government unveiled its Economic and Social Stabilisation Plan on Thursday which aims to mitigate the impact of Portugal’s economy being in moth balls over the past three months.

The Prime Minister in a press conference broadcast on national TV last night said that, “Unlike Covid-19,” the Government was “dealing with a longer and more profound illness” referring to the economic and social impact of the pandemic.
He said the loss of income was a “multiplying factor in the recession” at the end of a Council of Ministers meeting in which he added “to stabilise the economic and social situation, wages and incomes have to be protected”.
“Immediately protecting those who have the least” he stressed, explaining that the Government would adopt measures to support those on low incomes” through a complementary package for the 800,000 workers and 75,000 companies still on layoff.
The one-off payment measure will compensate the losses in salaries in reference to one month of layoff, with a minimum of €100 and a maximum of €351 “for all those who have salaries up to two minimum national salaries”.
From August, those companies that recommence their business activities but have suffered from significant falls in turnover will continue to receive state aid for salary payments even though they may not be working the same number of hours as before.
Families who are receiving the 1st to 3rd scales of extraordinary family allowance payable in September will enjoy an automatic extension on social security benefits until December.
“All those at risk of having their social security payments stopped will see it extended until December, including social integration payments and family allowance which will be automatically updated according to their usual monthly income on the month applied for and not previous months,” said the Prime Minister.
As to the reopening of shopping centres in the districts of Lisbon and Setúbal, the Prime Minister said this would be looked at again on Tuesday with a provisional reopening date for 15 June.