ECONOMY

EIB offers more guarantee for SME imports, external trade

EIB offers more guarantee for SME imports, external trade

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is extending further support to Greek enterprises through the renewal of its program financing external trade and imports. The new trade finance facility worth 400 million euros will be presented on Wednesday at a special event in Athens.

The program’s beneficiaries will be an estimated 300 small and medium-sized enterprises that will enjoy the EIB guarantee for risks associated with external trade.

This is a program that was first designed in 2013, taking into account the peculiarities of the Greek economy and credit system whose collateral were not accepted by banks abroad, hampering Greek enterprises from making imports or excluding them from international tenders. In practice, the EIB guarantee means that the suppliers and customers of Greek enterprises abroad will secure the satisfaction of their economic requirements given that it is the EIB that will undertake the risk.

The facility represents a further expansion of EIB support to Greece, where it has already invested some 13 billion euros in loans and collateral, while unpaid loans add up to 17 billion euros – i.e. some 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

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