The figure was released on Thursday in an interim assessment of economic support measures in Luxembourg by the small and medium-sized business minister Lex Delles (DP) and economy minister Franz Fayot (LSAP).

The state issued €43.7m in loans of up to €500,000 to stabilise businesses impacted by the lockdown, approving 820 applications for this scheme, which is funded to the tune of €37.7m by the directorate general for small and medium-sized businesses.

The first rescue measures were announced on 25 March, with additional measures for restarting the economy post-lockdown, dubbed the “Neistart Lëtzebuerg” package, presented on 20 May.

An extension of the short-time working scheme, in which the State covers 80% of wages (and 100% of the social minimum wage), was among the latter package. According to the government, since the start of lockdown in mid-March €795.6m was issued under this scheme in the form of advances to 14,537 companies.

Delles stressed the importance of encouraging further investment to support businesses in the worst-affected sectors and boost consumption. “This is why we are going to set up a new recovery and solidarity fund for businesses as well as new start-up aid for the retail trade in order to initiate a sustainable recovery of the Luxembourg economy,” he said.

To speed up the processing of requests for covid-19-related economic aid, in future businesses are encouraged to submit applications via the professional page of myguichet.lu.