COPENHAGEN, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Relief packages brought in to safeguard the Danish economy during the partial shutdown of Denmark will be phased out, according to a new agreement reached on Monday by a political majority in parliament.
"Fortunately, we are now opening up again, and therefore the time has come for most of the initiatives we have taken to stop," said Danish Minister of Finance Nicolai Wammen.
The aid packages are considered to have prevented bankruptcies and are estimated to have averted up to 81,000 layoffs during the COVID-19 epidemic in the country.
The new agreement also comes with a caveat -- all Danes will receive three weeks of frozen holiday money, up to October. Meanwhile, the government will still allow wage aid to continue until August.
According to Wammen, the increase in private consumption could be beneficial to kick-start the Danish economy.
"The Danes can be confident that the money is coming. It is too early to say how many jobs it will provide, but it is an important contribution to getting started in Denmark again," he said.
In addition, a state fund with 10 billion Danish Kroner (1.51 billion U.S. dollars) will be set up so as to inject money into the healthy community-based companies that have become disabled due to the novel coronavirus crisis.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Denmark stands at 13,678, with 597 deaths, out of 648,326 people who have been tested across the country, according to the latest count released by the Danish Statens Serum Institut on Monday. Enditem
