EBRD funds to Greece to reach 2 bln euros in 2018
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expects its financing in Greece to keep growing and to reach the 2-billion-euro mark by 2018, one of its top officials said on Tuesday.
Sabina Dziurman, the EBRD’s director for Greece and Cyprus, told Reuters the bank so far has spent just over 1 billion euros to help the country’s economic recovery, without including trade finance lines.
“This year we will do more than in 2016 and look forward to hitting the 2-billion-euro level next year,” Dziurman said on the sidelines of the EBRD’s annual meeting in Cyprus.
The EBRD will be investing in Greece up until the end of 2020.
Given the limited time, the bank has been frontloading its investments. It has laid out 250 million euros to help recapitalize the country’s four big banks, provided 186 million euros of long-term financing to Fraport Greece to upgrade 14 regional airports, and committed 300 million euros to renewable energy projects.
“When we run out of deals to do, we will have done the job,” Dziurman said. “But we are a long way from that. We’re here to help the economy recover, the sooner we can do it, the more it will help.”
[Reuters]
