February 6 (SeeNews) - The European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group) said on Monday that it provided loans, guarantees and equity commitments worth 494 million euro ($540.29 million) for projects in Bulgaria last year, down from 948 million euro in 2021.
The EIB made available 241 million euro in green financing to Bulgaria in 2022, representing 50% of the group's activity in the country, it said in a statement. The group also committed 190 million euro in banking operations, of which 90 million euro went towards a synthetic securitisation portfolio guarantee with Unicredit Bulbank under the European Guarantee Fund.
Bulgaria authorised the European Investment Fund (EIF) to manage 330 million euro for the country's Recovery and Resilience Plan, which will be used to crowd in private funding and increase financing for small businesses to over 1.5 billion euro. United Bulgarian Bank signed an agreement with the EIF to guarantee a further 125 million euro in loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
At the end of 2022, the EIB and Bulgaria's fund for Local Authorities and Governments signed a 40 million euro loan agreement to support urban renewal, EIB added. Total lending operations benefited 7,800 businesses and supported 133,000 jobs.
The EIB group comprises the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.
($1 = 0.9143 euro)