ZURICH — Switzerland could start reducing the debt pile it accumulated to help cushion the coronavirus pandemic's impact in two to three years and finish repaying it over 15 years, Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said in a radio interview. If all goes "very, very, very well", the extra debt the state is taking on to help fund short-hour work schemes and aid to businesses could hit 20 billion Swiss francs ($21.15 billion), he told broadcaster SRF in the interview aired on Saturday. Otherwise the debt pile could hit 35 billion, he said. This is still less than the 40 billion francs the government originally projected for extra debt, but Maurer cautioned there was still lots of uncertainty about the numbers. The government said this week it anticipates a budget deficit of around 1 billion francs next year, and said it would decide at year's end how to pay back the billions of debt it has accumulated to provide relief for struggling business.

Source: International New York Times July 04, 2020 11:15 UTC