- Title: With little state aid, zombie shops in Portugal fear short-lived reopening
- Date: 25th May 2020
- Summary: LISBON, PORTUGAL (MAY 25, 2020) (REUTERS) ROSSIO SQUARE "FANTASTIC WORLD OF SARDINES" STORE AT ROSSIO SQUARE VARIOUS OF "FANTASTIC WORLD OF SARDINES" SHOP ASSISTANTS WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS VARIOUS OF SARDINE CANS ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) "FANTASTIC WORLD OF SARDINES" WORKER, ANDRE MOUREIRA, SAYING: "Because of the Covid situation, we've had much less people. We don't have as many people as usual. On a normal day, we wouldn't be able to be doing this interview because the shop would be full. But we want to send a message of confidence, of hope." CUSTOMERS AT SHOP WORKER WITH SARDINE CAN ON HER HAND CUSTOMERS AT SHOP (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) "FANTASTIC WORLD OF SARDINES" SHOP ASSISTANT, ANDRE MOUREIRA, SAYING: "During this time barely anyone (has come in the shop). There aren't many people on the street either. But we're glad people who didn't know the shop are coming in to see it." VARIOUS OF CUSTOMERS AT SHOP SARDINE WRITTEN ON WALL IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES / SARDINE CANS ON DISPLAY FISHERMAN DOLL / SARDINE CANS VARIOUS OF SARDINE CANS ON DISPLAY STREET IN LISBON DOWNTOWN SIGN READING (Portuguese) "DISCOTECA AMALIA" EXTERIOR OF "DISCOTECA AMALIA"
- Embargoed: 8th June 2020 14:01
- Keywords: Portugal business coronavirus economy lockdown shops zombie shops
- Location: LISBON, PORTUGAL
- City: LISBON, PORTUGAL
- Country: Portugal
- Topics: Health/Medicine,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001CFFIY4N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: At "Fantastic World of Sardines" in Portugal's capital, cashier Andre Moureira and his two colleagues waited for just a single customer to break the boredom of the morning.
Barely anyone had visited the shop since its reopening, he said at the tourist-oriented shop where only three or four people have been trickling in a day to see the glitzy cans and even a fish-themed carousel.
Down the road, Rosa Amelia said she had had four customers since Discoteca Amalia selling CDs of the melancholic Portuguese fado music opened on May 4.
For two-and-a-half months during the coronavirus crisis, Portuguese businesses have struggled through a near-total collapse in custom with little to no state aid.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 83,000 companies received an average of just 432 euros ($471) per worker in government funds to prop up salaries, Ministry of Labour data showed.
Rent, mortgages and bank loan repayments were suspended on a temporary basis, but debts will need to be repaid.
Some 6.2 billion euros totalling 3% of GDP were allocated in credit lines for companies - but that was far less than similar schemes in other European nations where, for example, the figure was 8% in neighboring Spain and 40% in Italy.
As Portugal's restrictions ease, shops and restaurants are slowly rolling up blinds and unlocking doors, faced with losing access to support for layoffs altogether if they do not open within eight days of being allowed to do so.
But the days are slow, to say the least, and with rising debts, no liquidity and barely any revenue on the horizon, the atmosphere has turned gloomy just when it had been picking up from years of austerity.
Portugal's economy is dominated by small businesses.
A mere 5% of firms employ more than 10 people, according to the National Institute of Statistics, and just under one in five of its workforce is self-employed.
Before the coronavirus, things were finally looking up as exports and tourism created more jobs and boosted revenues.
Finance Minister Mario Centeno had just achieved his long-time goal: converting a deficit measuring 4.5% of GDP when the Socialists took office in 2015 to a surplus of 0.2% at the end of 2019.
But with one of the smallest household savings rates in the European Union and the lowest minimum wage in Western Europe, personal finances were nowhere near robust enough to withstand a sudden drop in income.
As the weeks have rolled by, the government has expanded support programs bit-by-bit. Each group added to the list would be eligible for payments from the next month onwards, if they could prove a drop in income of 40% over 30 days.
Of the 6.2 billion euros allocated in credit, just 1.1 billion has reached applicants' bank accounts so far - a delay Prime Minister Antonio Costa blamed on banks taking a long time to assess whether applicants were credit-worthy.
Associations say firms cannot hold much longer if liquidity does not reach them soon.
(Production: Miguel Pereira) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None