A N N O U N C E M E N T

At the session held today, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia adopted a decision to subsidize the interest rate on the new credit line provided by the European Investment Bank in the amount of 50 million euros, which is intended for financing small and medium businesses and other priority projects.

With this decision, the subsidized interest rate for the small and medium businesses for this credit line will amount to 5.5%.

The goal of this new credit line from the EIB is providing fresh capital to support small and medium businesses, which in terms will aim at implementing new projects, creating new employments, increasing the liquidity of the economy and the export.    

With the Government’s decision to subsidize the interest rate, the cost of these funds is considerably decreased, thus providing additional support to the small and medium businesses at providing cheaper funds for financing their business activities.

The credit line will be placed by the Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion to the end users, through the commercial banks. At least 70% of this credit line will be intended for financing small and medium businesses, whilst other priority projects, which can be financed with up to 30% from the funds foreseen with this credit line, imply small and medium investments, which will be undertaken by end users at any amount in the areas of protecting the environment, knowledge-based economy, energy, infrastructure (including health care and education), industry, tourism, trade and other services.

The funds intended for subsidizing the interest rate of the EIB credit line, which is intended for financing small and medium businesses and other priority projects, are provided from the Budget of the Republic of Macedonia.