Policy responses to COVID-19 in Uruguay

Abstract

COVID-19 caused an overwhelming wave with large social and economic consequences and huge policy challenges. We provide an evaluation of the impact of the social, economic, and financial policy measures undertaken to ameliorate its negative consequences in Uruguay. Overall, we find that the policy response had a significant effect on mitigating the negative impact of the pandemic in the country. We also discuss policy implications.

1. Policy challenges

The shock of the COVID-19 was overwhelming, with immediate and medium-term social and economic consequences. During the first weeks of the pandemic, the level of uncertainty was high and policy challenges were huge. In this paper, we evaluate of the impact of the shock and of the policy responses undertaken during 2020 and 2021 by the Uruguayan authorities in order to ameliorate its negative effects. The focus is on the lessons learned and the policy implications. Bucacos et al. (2022) provides the background analysis supporting the main policy messages of this paper. Ramos-Francia and García-Verdú (2022) provides a complementary view of central banks’ responses to COVID-19.

Uruguay declared a health emergency on March 13, 2020. That day the first cases of COVID-19 were reported. The Government quickly took measures to reduce both the domestic and the international mobility of the population, without resorting to extreme measures such as a lockdown. At the same time, other sanitary and non-sanitary measures were put in place to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic. This included health measures aimed to reduce infections, and increase the capacity of the health system, such as the vaccination of a large proportion of the population.

Both the pandemic itself and the measures established to reduce its propagation had an immediate negative effect and an uncertain medium-term impact on large part of the population and economic sectors, challenging policymaking. Once the virus was detected, one of the main questions was about the virus spread, velocity, and capacity to saturate the healthcare system. The projections of epidemiological models alerted to the need to reduce mobility and take social distancing measures. These kind of measures were necessary to keep the health system in a position to successfully respond to the infections. However, they came with another immediate, negative consequence: economic activity, vulnerable households, and independent workers were deeply affected by a reduction in their income.

With the objective of supporting the affected households and economic sectors, several measures were taken to support the labor market; by providing liquidity through expansionary monetary policy, fostering credit through regulatory forbearance and public credit guarantees, and subsidizing the most affected populations. The first battery of government measures to support affected workers was announced on March 19, 2020. However, they mostly reached basically dependent and formal workers, whereas around 20% of the labor force was composed of independent workers in the informal sector. This segment of the labor force was especially exposed to the negative consequences of social distancing and mobility reduction, and, therefore, it needed targeted measures.

Another look at the immediate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and income comes from assessing the population whose employment may be affected by the emergency situation. The vulnerability of a working position is identified based on two possible causes: i) teleworking is not easily applicable in the activity sector, and ii) the production of the activity sector may suffer from social distance measures. Approximately 800.000 workers (49% of the employed population) were proven to have labor ties of medium or high vulnerability (see Fig. 1 ).

Fig. 1.

Vulnerable workers by activity sector (thousands of people) Source: Banco Central del Uruguay (BCU) based on ECH.

Our main concern was to obtain data that would allow us to monitor and forecast economic activity during the first week of the shock. As is well known, since traditional variables are available with delay and in a context of extreme uncertainty, it was essential to have data in (almost) real-time. According to Bucacos et al. (2022), high frequency indicators, (e.g. electricity and fuel consumption), and simple short-run projection models using these indicators as explanatory variables were very useful for forecasting purposes. Indeed, once the official figures of GDP growth were released around six months later their precision became evident: GDP fell around 13% in the second quarter of 2020 representing a big shock for economic activity, whereas the real-time projections anticipate falls between 10% and 17% for the quarter.

The policy challenges were also clear from the estimations of Growth-at-Risk models and financial instability indicators. Landaberry et al. (2021) show that in a COVID-19 scenario, the GDP growth probability distribution for 2020 strongly shifts to the left. In this case, there was a probability of 10% that the contraction was greater than or equal to -6.9% and a probability of 5% that the contraction was greater than or equal to -8.6%. The most probable value in this scenario (mode) was -4.1%. Several months after the official figures of GDP for 2020 were published, we were was able to confirm the accuracy of these projections: GDP growth in 2020 was -5.9%.

When facing huge policy challenges ahead, authorities applied a series of policy responses. On top of health measures in the next section we focus on social, economic, and financial measures for the ease of presentation. Afterwards, we evaluate their impact.

Overall, the policy response had a significant effect by mitigating the negative impact of the pandemic. We argue that for a series of policy implications, it is important to have information and tools for real-time monitoring and forecasting of shocks like the COVID-19, a battery of policy responses in several critical fronts (e.g. social, economic and financial, that are adequate; general measures (e.g. expansionary monetary policy) that are complemented by targeted policies implemented in tandem to attend priorities, and since uncertainty requires rapid action, an adequate design of the measures that seriously takes into account agents’ incentives.

2. Policy responses

The policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic stems from health measures. First, restrictions that seek to reduce infections, which mainly focused on mobility reduction and requests to minimize social meetings. Second, a set of measures aimed at increasing the capacity of the health system, not only by increasing hospital and ICU places, but also by defining protocols regarding the care for non-priority pathologies. The primary aim of this response is to avoid saturation of hospitals in the event of a wave of infections. Third, vaccination. In the Appendix, Table A.1 presents an overview of the health measures, whereas Table A.2. presents a detailed description of social, economic, and financial measures, which we summarize in the next two subsections.

2.1. Social and economic measures

The economic policy response seeks to reduce the impact on general and sectoral economic activity caused by the mobility restrictions. These economic measures were utilized in a complex scenario, with very weak GDP growth since 2015, a compromised fiscal framework (i.e. a public deficit-to-GDP ratio of 5%), a growing public debt-to-GDP ratio (67% in 2019), and an inflation rate (8.79% in 2019) above the inflation target range (i.e, between 3% and 7%) with inflation expectations anchored above the upper bound of the target range.

The social and economic policy response focused on the labor market by extending the regular unemployment subsidy and giving monetary aid to those who were not covered by the formal social security network. In addition, the sectoral measures carried out in order to protect the firms were harmed by the reduction in mobility, mainly in transport, tourism, services, and commerce.

Uruguayan economic institutions used the already comprehensive social spending links to implement the policy relief. Automatic stabilizers, such as unemployment subsidies and sick leaves, were improved (see Fig. 2 ), and monetary subsidies were reinforced to fight the negative economic effects of the pandemic.1

Fig. 2.

Beneficiaries of unemployment insurance (thousands of people) Source: Banco Central del Uruguay (BCU) based on Banco de Prevision Social (BPS)..

2.2. Financial measures

Banco Central del Uruguay and the fiscal authority implemented a series of financial measures aimed to secure the payment chain, provide liquidity, and foster credit in order to help to keep the economy’s engine functioning.

Fig. 3 describes the monetary and regulatory measures implemented by Banco Central del Uruguay.2 Given the huge impact on economic activity and the need to provide liquidity to businesses, the monetary policy took an expansionary stance immediately after the first positive cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. In addition to that, a series of actions to support credit provision were carried out, particularly in domestic currency. There were temporary reductions in reserve requirements that are linked to the credit growth of financial institutions. Importantly, the reduction in reserve requirements only occurs for those banks that increase credit by the same amount. This design guarantees that the reduction in reserve requirements finances credit to the real sector at the same time that banks continue performing their screening and credit allocation activities. Moreover, the financial supervisor implemented several measures to facilitate credit restructuring and to extend loan maturity. It also established other flexibility measures to help financial institutions to monitor credit and to support those viable firms that were affected by the pandemic.

Fig. 3.

Monetary and regulatory measures Source: Banco Central del Uruguay (BCU).

The Government extended an existing public credit guarantee scheme in order to facilitate credit provision for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and avoid a potential credit crunch. Credit granted using the scheme reached a total of USD 780 million, which represented almost 13% of total monthly credit granted to SMEs on average. At its peak in August 2020, 27% of the credit granted to SMEs was backed with this public guarantee scheme. Fig. 4 shows the monthly evolution of credit granted and the related guarantee, which represents an 80% on average coverage rate.

Fig. 4.

Credits granted with a public credit guarantee (millions of dollars) Source: SiGa Emergencia.

Importantly, some of the restrictions of the original credit guarantee mechanism were softened with the aim of reaching the most affected firms and providing good incentives to lenders to avoid misuse and opportunistic behavior. While the decision-making on borrower eligibility and credit risk assessment are left to the lender, there are a series of pre-established requirements: the eligible firm needs to be formally established, with payment capacity and up to date with its tax obligations; 1. the firm already had an active loan in February 2020, it’s loan payments must be less than 60 days past due as of February 29, 2020, and the firm must have a relatively good rating in the credit register as of February 2020.

3. Impact evaluation

In this section, we describe the main results of our evaluation of the impact of three batteries of policy responses: expantionary monetary policy, social and economic support measures, and financial measures. Methodological details are presented in Bucacos et al. (2022).

3.1. Impact of the expansionary monetary policy

In 2020, Uruguay implemented an expansionary monetary policy focused on easing monetary conditions, which implied a sharp fall in real interest rates, which cushioned the fall in economic activity and generated a further increase in inflation. Using the macroeconomic models created by Basal et al. (2016); Carballo (2022); Carballo et al. (2015) we assess the impact of the expansionary monetary policy on selected variables: inflation, inflation expectations, and output gap, among others.

3.1.1. Impact on inflation

The historical decomposition of shocks shows the impact of the expantionary monetary policy of 1.4% on the year-to-year inflation rate at the end of 2020 (see Fig. 5 ). Shocks to inflation targets were also significant as another form of easing monetary conditions. Likewise, the model identifies an inflationary impact of cost-push shocks and private-sector inflation expectations disturbances during 2020; disinflationary impulses came from international deflation and exchange rate shocks.

Fig. 5.

Inflation rate.

3.1.2. Impact on inflation expectations

Inflation expectations also reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and the expantionary monetary policy. In the last quarter of 2020, professional forecasters expected an inflation rate of 7.5% six months ahead, which is 3 percentage points above the inflation target. In this deviation, 2 percentage points are explained by the gradual convergence of the long-term inflation target, whereas the remaining 1 percentage point was explained by the expansionary monetary policy. These two factors explain almost all of the inflation expectations’deviations from the target. The inflationary effect of cost-push shocks would have been offset by the contractionary effect of shocks from international deflation and the downward adjustment of the nominal exchange rate, country risk premium, and expectations after the shock of COVID-19.

3.1.3. Impact on output gap

In 2020, economic activity deviated sharply from its trend level. However, if the monetary policy measures had not been implemented, the output contraction would have been larger. Fig. 6 shows that the impact of the expantionary monetary policy on the level of activity is around 1.4 percentage points. The remaining shocks were contractionary during 2020, with a greater share being associated with the behavior of aggregate demand. International contractionary impulses came from external demand and international deflation. Financial variables were contractionary, mainly through shocks on financing premiums. Cost-push shocks and private-sector inflation expectations shocks also affected economic activity also in a contractionary manner.

Fig. 6.

Output gap.

3.1.4. Impact on other variables

Hereafter, we use the historical decomposition of the DSGE model created by Basal et al. (2016) to analyze the impact of the main shocks on output, private consumption, investment, and hours worked. Table 1 shows the historical decomposition of the first three variables.

Table 1.

Historical decomposition - DSGE modelAnnual log difference %- Average 2020 .

	GDP	Consumption	Investment
Supply	-2.8	-0.7	0.1
Demand	-4.1	-7.4	-0.4
Financial	-0.9	-2.2	-7.3
International	-1.9	0.9	-1.3
Monetary Policy	0.8	0.4	2.3
Others	-0.2	-0.9	1.4
Average growth rate	-6.1	-6.5	-0.8
Steady state growth rate	3.1	3.4	4.4

Source: Authors’ calculations The impact of shocks is computed as a deviation from steady state equilibrium of variables. This means that variables presented in the table deviated from steady state growth by a magnitude equivalent to the sum of the shocks presented in the table.

The contraction of GDP in 2020 was the result of an adverse evolution of domestic demand components (consumption, investment, and public spending) and, to a lesser extent, of aggregate supply (driven by the fall in productivity) and international variables, especially the evolution of external demand and international deflation.3 With respect to monetary policy, the impact on the GDP growth rate is estimated to be 0.8%.

During 2020, private consumption contracted 6.1%, mainly driven by its own shocks (demand) and by shocks that affected the nominal exchange rate (financial). International variables would have had an expansive impact due to the effect of low international interest rates, which more than offset the contractionary effect of international deflation. The expansionary monetary policy cushioned the fall in consumption with an estimated impact of 0.4%. The investment recorded a slight contraction (0.8%) during 2020 due to strong investment flows associated with the installation of a new pulp mill in the country. Shocks to financial variables (mainly the foreign exchange rate) and, to a lesser extent, from international variables and their own shocks had a negative impact on investment. We estimate that monetary policy had a positive impact of 2.3% over investment. The category “Others” could be reflecting part of the impact of works associated with the new pulp mill.

Uruguay’s labor market was deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures. Labor market adjustments were processed via a sharp decline in hours worked. The expansionary impact of monetary policy would have cushioned the drop in hours worked during three of the four quarters of 2020 with an estimated impact of around 0.2%. International variables would also have buffered this fall, mainly in the second half of 2020, driven by low international interest rates and the recovery of external demand.

3.2. Impact of the social and economic measures

As the first step to assess the efficacy of the policy implemented to cushion individuals’s well-being during the pandemic, Bucacos et al. (2022) analyze its quantitative impact on private consumption during the second quarter of 2020 up to the second quarter of 2021. We compare the actual scenario with a counterfactual scenario without policy measures.

One of the main concerns of policymakers was the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the real economy. Many individuals and small businesses experienced an increase in their income risk while general economic uncertainty continued to grow. Automatic stabilizers (e.g. unemployment subsidies and sick leaves), helped mitigate income risks to some extent, but an exceptional fiscal response was still needed. Most of the fiscal policy measures implemented by the Uruguayan government are aggregated in the COVID-19 Fund, which is administered by the Ministry of Finance (MEF).

Although unable to capture the dip in per-capita consumption in the second and third quarters of 2020, a Vector Error-Correction Model (VECM) can replicate its annual growth rate. In this model, fiscal policy measures, summarized through the COVID-19 Fund, helped to reduce the fall in per-capita consumption. Along with monetary and financial measures, that are summarized in two financial conditions indexes, social and economic measures can explain the recovery since the second quarter of 2021.

Fiscal policy relief seems to be responsible for cushioning individuals’ well-being from the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In effect, per capita welfare losses would have been 0.7% higher during the first quarter of 2021, and 1.9% higher during the second quarter, had public policy not been implemented.

3.3. Impact of the financial measures

One way to evaluate the impact of financial policy measures on economic sectors is to survey firms through key variables, such as liquidity and access to credit.

3.3.1. Impact on liquidity

In May 2020, November 2020, and May 2021, a question related to the liquidity of firms was included in a monthly survey for a representative sample of the population of firms in Uruguay:“As long as you do not have access to bank credit or supplier credit, how many weeks do you estimate that you will be able to maintain the current activity of your firm with the working capital that you have?.” The median of the answers increased significantly between May and November 2020, about 8 to 10 weeks, and remained at that level in May 2021.

Bucacos et al. (2022) estimated panel data regression models and showed that the positive impact on firms’ liquidity may be explained by the financial policy measures undertaken, and that a propagation channel occurs through a reduction on the nominal interest rate for credit in domestic currency. Indeed, the interest rate in domestic currency for corporate loans sharply decreased when the financial policy measures were introduced. This correlates with the increasing willingness of firms to ask for credit denominated in local currency. In February 2020, 47% of firms declared they prefered credit denominated in US dollars, whereas only 30% prefered that denomination in October 2020.

3.3.2. Impact on credit access

Fig. 7 presents firms’ expectations of the easiness of credit access for each type of external financing sources. These variables were constructed as the difference between the perception of expected easiness to access credit in the next three months and the perception of current access with respect to the previous three months. Positive values correspond to an expected increase in the easiness of credit access. During 2020 and 2021, firms perceived an increase in the easiness of receiving all types of credits, particularly commercial credit, the main short-term external financing source for Uruguayan firms (Mello, 2018). The perceived increase in easiness of credit access is contemporaneous to the financial measures implemented by the authorities, both for bank and non-bank financial sector loans, along with commercial credit.

Fig. 7.

Credit access expectations.

Empirical results from an Ordered-Logistic Model show that in both financial types of credits (i.e. bank and non-bank loans), the fall in the interest rate of loans in local currency is the main determinant of the perception of firms as increasing easiness in credit access. This is an expected result since the price of taking bank loans dropped sharply in local currency and financial non-bank credit is considered a substitute for bank credit.

Overall, we can conclude that the main channels in liquidity provision and in firms’ financial health during the COVID-19 crisis included the reduction in interest rates for loans in local currency which correlated with the financial policy measures undertaken by the authorities (e.g. the reduction in reserve requirements and the provision of public credit guarantees).

4. Discussion and policy implications

The COVID-19 pandemic implied a large shock, with immediate and medium-term economic consequences, and huge policy challenges. The policy response to mitigate the negative impact of the shock needed to be rapid, which was the case in Uruguay.

Importantly, a battery of policy measures in several critical fronts (e.g. social, economic, and financial), showed adequate. Focusing on priorities to guide action was also important. General measures (e.g. expansionary monetary policy), should be complemented with targeted policies implemented in tandem to address priorities. Among them, a series of social, economic, and financial measures were developed with the aim of supporting the most vulnerable households and businesses.

Our assessment of the impact of the policy measures on firms’activity, inflation, inflation expectations, investment, consumption, hours worked, and firms’ financing shows that they were useful in mitigating the negative effects of the pandemic. Overall, all these variables show a significantly better outcome than in a counterfactual scenario in which public policies were not implemented.

In addition to a battery of general policies complemented by targeted ones acting in tandem to address the most urgent priorities, other policy implications were developed in order to help policymakers to successfully face the policy challenges imposed by a shock like COVID-19. It is important to have information and tools for real-time monitoring and forecasting of shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic. Without a rapid implementation of these models and alternative data sources, precious time to make informed decisions may be lost. Furthermore, while uncertainty requires rapid action, an adequate design that seriously takes into account agents’ incentives is crucial to the success of the measures, both in supporting affected individuals, households and business during the downturn, and in facilitating the recovery

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Appendix A. Health, social, and economic measures

Reduce infections	Increase capacity of health system	Vaccination
Partial border closure and total closure withs Argentina for people. Specific border controls with Brazil. Suspension of flights from Europe for a time. Passengers and crew of cruise ships prohibited from disembarkating	Extension of working hours at the Virology Laboratory of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP)	Negotiation with laboratories. Pfizer and Sinovac are purchased
Exhortation to stay home and physically distance	Telephone services of specialized personnel and doctors provided free of charge.	Vaccination plan stages subject to the arrival of the vaccines. 1.- On 2/26, the agenda for priority groups opened with Sinovac (e.g., education workers, firefighters, military, police, and custom officials of the first line of control). 2.- Health workers in priority areas were provided Pfizer. 3.- The plan advanced based on age groups and comorbidities.
Suspension of public shows, social gatherings, and social entertainments	Development of chat-bot to address queries through coronavirus.uy and an application
Suspension of in-person school classes on 3/14/20. In June, the return was voluntary and then mandatory. In March 2021, classes are suspended again, between May and June the returns began	Request for support from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to acquire materials to protect health personnel and diagnostic techniques to detect COVID-19
Reduction of 50% for the number of collective transport units that circulate on weekends. Frequencies of collective transport doubled in peak hours. Capacity at 50% for the number of passengers in interdepartmental transport units during times of greatest mobility	Joint work of researchers from the Faculties of Sciences and Medicine, the Hospital de Clinicas and the Pasteur Institute, for the development of molecular diagnostic techniques to detect COVID-19	A bill will be drawn up so that workers have the necessary amount of time to be vaccinated without affecting wages
Exhortation to wear face mask, then, mandatory	Increase in the number of ICU beds and respiratory units
Dissemination of a public good campaign in the media that focused on prevention measures	Open call from the NATIONAL Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) to develop and prepare COVID-19 diagnostic kits in the short term
Circulation of police cars to urge the population to avoid crowds on public roads	Ensure the necessary resources to assist the national health emergency, including the purchase of supplies for the Ministry of Public Health (MSP)
Instrumentation of a cell-phone application that allows people to access a georeference of cases and receive an alert when they are near a risk zone	Tax exemptions and simplified customs procedures for necessary goods
Exhortation for people over 65 years of age to comply with the preventive quarantine measures. Public officials must remain in their homes	Ensure the necessary resources to attend the national health emergency are prioritized, including financing the purchase of supplies for the Ministry of Public Health (MSP)
Random tests in cities with significant rates of infections
Instrumentation of teleworking in cases where it is required. It is suggested as an alternative, both at the public and private levels
Exhortation for owners and administrators of large commercial premises to close them preventively and provisionally, with the exception of stores that sell food and pharmacies. Restrictive measures for neighborhood fairs that are not food focused
Suspension of entry in the country between 12/21/20 and 1/26/2021
Limitation of the right of the assemble when it conspicuously violates public health by dissolving agglomerations. Private meetings may not exceed 10 people, based on the bubble concept.
Implementation of teleworking in public offices, since December 21. In the private sphere, the exhortation to telework has been reiterated.

Labor market	Monetary policy/Financial stability
Flexibile use of unemployment insurance for a shorter time and even part-time	Reduction of reference interest rate.
Include COVID-19 as an occupational disease for 45 days. This will make it possible to cover sickness insurance for dependent workers, medical and non-medical, from the private sector who become infected	Temporary reduction of bank reserve requirements in national currency and UI and an increase in maximum available credit to 14,000 thousand pesos (i.e., 330 thousand US dollars, 0.6% of GDP)
All workers who make use of the sickness subsidy after maintained contact with a person with COVID-19 will have the right to receive the subsidy beginning from the first day of the quarantine indicated by their health provider	Foreign exchange intervention in the spot market and in the future market
The MTSS and the OPP drafted a bill awaiting Parliament’s approval that will grant 15,000 jobs to the unemployed for 6 months. The measure will be carried out together with the departmental governments	Extension of maturities of the Non-Financial Sector credits for 180 days
	Possibility of not considering restructuring of credits that are approved until 12/21/20 as problematic. Flexibility for financial institutions to evaluate the payment capacity of debtors
	Extension of the grace period for capital amortization for clients affected by the health emergency
	Extension to present information to the financial system
	Public guarantee scheme: ”Siga Emergencia” is for micro, small, and medium-sized companies that demonstrate an ability to pay and maintain a good credit rating and that have no tax and social security debt. For working capital, invest in or restructure existing credits. ”SIGA Plus” for medium and large companies and ”SIGA Turismo” for tourism companies.

Social	Sectoral
Extension of the National Health Insurance (SNS) for all dependent and non-dependent workers who appeared on the collective medical institution of February 28, 2020 and lost coverage due to the cessation of work activity during the health emergency	Subsidy of 6000 pesos (i.e., 142 US dollars) for workers in the artistic sector who do not receive income from unemployment insurance, fee, or contracts
Subsidy of up to 50% of the rental amount guaranteed by the Rental Guarantee Service of Nation’s General Accounting Office, for private activity workers, covered by the Unemployment Subsidy (total) in charge of the BPS	Extension of the coverage from the State Insurance Bank for all doctors in the country
Food for school children during Tourism Week (e.g. Easter Week): and extra money for those that receive Family Allowance or food tickets	Offer credit lines with flexible conditions through Banco Republica up to a total amount of 50 million US dollars. Work with multilateral credit organizations increase to 125 million US dollars
Transfer of 1000 million pesos (i.e., 24 million US dollars) from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES) to extend hours and create new shelters for homeless people, strengthening the plans of the National Food Institute (IDA) and the amounts of the Uruguay Social Cards (TAS)	Postponement of employer contribution payments from owners and partners, corresponding to the months of March and April, for monotributistas, sole proprietorships, and personal companies with up to 10 employees (Industry and Commerce), in six equal and consecutive installments from June. That corresponds to 60% of those payments, whereas the remaining 40% will be fully subsidized by the State
Reinforcement of the available balance in the 86,000 food cards that reach 400,000 people	Subsidy received by the social monotributistas from MIDES covers about 10,000
One-time duplication of the amount on Uruguay Social cards. Half will be transferred on March 31, and the rest will be transferred a month later	Between December 1, 2020 and April 4, 2021, the Government implemented a zero VAT rate for hotels, discounts of 9 VAT points for gastronomic activities and car rentals, monthly discounts of 8000 pesos (190 US dollars) in employer contributions for new contracts to reinstate employees, and access to credit guarantees through the National Guarantee System (SIGA)
Doubling the amount of food destined for municipal dining rooms in the interior of the country and for baskets in the territorial offices. Both actions in the responsibility of MIDES	Implementation of Coronavirus Fund which is composed of the contribution from the salaries of public officials with liquid salaries higher than 80,000 pesos (i.e., 1900 US dollars), to which a discount will be made, on scale of 5, 10, and 20%, according to the nominal fees received, for two months
Expansion of access to food baskets granted by MIDES and an increase in Family Allowances	Postponement of payments maturity of the General Tax Directorate and the Social Security Bank
Delivery of food baskets in April and May 2020 for 118,000 households with Family Allowances from the Equity Plan, complementary to those provided by the municipalities of Montevideo and Canelones. Extension of those benefits for informal workers not registered in the system	Exoneration of 100% payments for the fixed charge and the contracted power of UTE and 100% of OSE’s fixed charge to the education, culture, sports and real estate sectors
Fourth instance of doubling of the amount of the Uruguay Social card and the Equity Plan family allowance. It was presented in halves, in the second weeks of November and December 2020, respecitively. The transfer of food basket will also continue in both months	Financing 70% of the value of electricity consumption bills corresponding to the period from April to November of 2020 for hotels and restaurants registered with the Ministry of Tourism Payments which are made in four installments
Home health coverage for patients with suspected COVID-19 infection and their relatives, through the State Health Services Administration (ASSE) or private providers in the interior of the country	Access to a loan, of 12,000 pesos (i.e., 280 US dollars) in May and again in June, for sole proprietorship. The benefit will be greater indexed units (UI), without interest rates that can be paid in 24 equal and consecutive installments
Deferral of the May, June, and July installments of the Social Security Bank (BPS) loan for 150,800 retirees and pensioners who receive less than 13,600 pesos (i.e., 320 US dollars). This is intended to be a relief for the elderly, as almost 60% are paying off loans	Implementation of a loan for companies directly affected by this health emergency, through ANDE’s directed credit programs, which will have a rate subsidized by the MEF. Postponement of maturities for all beneficiaries of ANDE’s directed credit programs during the following month
Extension of the internet access benefit to 120,000 services with the Universal Hogares plan, free of charge	Special loans for working capital for the most affected sectors through microfinance institutions and rate subsidy by the ANDE
Publication by the Consumer Protection Area of the prices of different hygiene products for sale. Agreement with merchants, producers, and intermediaries to maintain the prices of food, hygiene, and sanitary products for three months	IRPF/ IRNR exemption to income derived from temporary leases for tourist purposes that were accrued from November 16, 2020 to April 4, 2021
Extension fee for expired vehicle licenses for April 20, and rural contributions for the 30th of the same month implemented by the Congress of Mayors	Increase in the credit guarantee fund of the ANDE to provide financial institutions with access to loans for an amount of up to 2500 million dollars
Awareness campaign, new protocols for health personnel, purchase of electronic anklets, and greater coordination with the Judiciary, to avoid cases of gender or intra-family violence during the isolation period due to the health emergency. Expansion of quotas for mothers who, by order of the Justice, must leave their homes. Design of a system so that children, through the Ceibal Plan, can request help	Exemption from employer retirement contributions to social security for companies that provide transportation services for school children and school canteens, companies with premises dedicated to the organization and to hold parties and events, travel agencies, organizing companies, and providers of congresses and fairs for national and international companies dedicated to land transportation of tourist groups and excursions, from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021
Health insurance for people over 65 years old	Facility scheme for personal and employer tax debt for dependent employees, including contributions to FONASA
	Exoneration of 50% of employer retirement contributions to the social security for all micro and small companies in the industry and commerce regime, activities severely affected by the pandemic
	Special leave for construction workers