August 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government will direct a further 562 million levs ($339.5 million/287.3 million euro) of EU funding to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to help them cope with the consequences of the coronavirus crisis, the economy ministry said.
Some 400 million levs will be provided to SMEs under the European Union's programme for recovery following the coronavirus pandemic - REACT-EU, while 162 million levs will be distributed under the EU's operational programme Innovations and Competitiveness, economy minister Lachezar Borissov said in a video file posted on the website of local NOVA TV on Thursday.
The allocation of the financial support is expected to start in September, Borissov said. The economy ministry is still considering some of the criteria for applying for financial support, he added.
Earlier this year, Bulgaria's government said it will transfer 233 million levs of EU funds towards its human resources and competitiveness operational programmes to finance temporary employment schemes and provide working capital to SMEs.
In May, tthe European Commission recommended to Bulgaria to provide effective support to SMEs and self-employed, in line with the EU's 'general escape clause', which sets necessary measures to address the coronavirus pandemic.
"There is a severe crisis ahead of us and that is why we are taking all those measures," the economy minister said, adding that the ministry expects the Bulgarian economy to shrink by less than 7% in the third quarter of 2020.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 8.2% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, after a 2.4% increase in the first quarter, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on Friday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)