EIB financed operations in Portugal for a record amount of €5,324 million in 2021
The EIB group, made up of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF), launched 27 operations in Portugal in 2021, reaching a record announced value of 5,324 million euros, 128% more than in 2020, as announced in 2020 this Monday by the EIB in a statement.
Of these, 4.877 million euros (92% of the total) went to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). According to the note, the EIB group is estimated to have supported more than 22,000 SMEs in Portugal.
According to the results of the group’s activity in the country, “Portugal was the fifth largest supporter of the EIB Group 2021 and in percentage of GDP”.
Cited in the note, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, vice-president of the EIB, said that “the activity of the EIB group in Portugal was simply extraordinary in 2021” and that “this was only possible thanks to the Pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF), established following the Covid-19 outbreak to meet the financial needs of small and medium-sized businesses [PME], as more issues by the pandemic”. “It was for this reason that, in 2021, we dedicated 92% of the EIB’s global activity in Portugal to the investment needs of these companies”, he added.
The Pan-European Guarantee Fund (EGF) was created at the end of 2020 by the group of 22 Member States to help EU companies, in particular as SMEs, to recover from the crisis caused by the pandemic. Since December 2020, the EIB group has supported 401 operations, worth more than €23 million, in the 22 participating countries.
Portugal was a guarantee for past children, since in the year the EIB group concluded 16 EGF operations in the country, “in a total amount of more than 1.8 billion euros”, a portfolio that “will owe around 11.6 million euros from financial companies due to the coronavirus pandemic”.
Overall, the EIB secured €95 billion in financing, 23% more than in 2020 (€65 billion from the EIB in financial terms and €30 billion from the EIF in guarantees). This was the highest level in the EIB’s 63-year history. Outside Europe, the group granted 8.1 billion euros.