ATHENS — The Greek government will offer tax reductions or greater tax relief measures in the transport and hospitality sectors by September, along with other support measures for enterprises, such as "Gefyra 2" (subsidising loan payments) and covering part of enterprises' fixed spending, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said on Wednesday.

In comments made to SKAI TV, Staikouras said that the cost of the lockdown for the economy totals 750 million euros per week, but failed to offer any timetable for the restart of the market, saying that this was a decision to be made by health experts. "When the extension of the lockdown until March 16 was decided, the cost of these 12 days was 1.2 billion euros, equally distributed between loss of revenue and higher spending, of which 520 million euros from the retail commerce sector. The more the lockdown is extended the closer we will get to reaching a fiscal cost of 3.0 billion euros on a monthly basis," Staikouras said. He added, however, that support measures for households and enterprises were raised by 4.1 billion euros compared with state budget provisions for 2021, totaling 11.6 billion euros. The FinMin noted that the number of eligible enterprises and self-employed for the 7th round of state loans, worth 1.0 billion euros, will not be smaller compared with previous rounds and said that a decision to extend a measure subsidising rents in April will be taken in the next few days. Staikouras said that the European Commission has recommended an extension of fiscal flexibility in 2022.