Three new programmes for the strengthening of small and medium-sized enterprises will run their in the coming months with resources from the RecoveryFund. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance is preparing the first programme review Greece 2.0 . The revision will presented in European Commission with shifting resources to more dynamic sectors.

In particular, the programmes that will be launched in the coming period for SMEs are:

• The Business Economy. It concerns energy saving and self-production and is due to open in the coming weeks.
• A new financial instrument. It will come out in the first quarter of the year, where 2.5 billion. of loan funds will be channelled to SMEs by InvestEU.
• The second cycle of agro-processing - given the high interest registered in the first cycle.

The "cheap" loans from the Recovery Fund

At the same time, the loan component of the Recovery Fund is also progressing. As Deputy Finance Minister Theo Skylakakis said last week, loan agreements have already been signed, a budget of more than 3 billion euro. At the same time, there is plenty of room for interested investors, up to the amount of 25-30 billion euro projects, which can cover the loan part of the Fund. He estimated that in the first half of the year, loan contracting will reach up to €10 billion euros.

Interest in the loan component of the Recovery Fund remains high. This is because the loans are given on particularly favourable terms compared to traditional bank financing of businesses. According to the most recent data of the Ministry of Finance, the average interest rate of the signed loan agreements is 1.2%. Bank lending rates to businesses reached 4.5-5% in November, according to the Bank of Greece.

The big bet remains the further strengthening small and medium-sized enterprises. In this context, role in loans from the Recovery Fund which so far only the four systemic banks are "running", claim and the cooperative banks. Last week the Association of Cooperative Banks of Greece sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance requesting the direct access of Co-operative Banks to the financial instruments of the Recovery Fund. The aim is to strengthen low-interest financing for local businesses, through the competitive conditions set by the Fund.

"The access of the Cooperative Banks will mitigate the unequal competition suffered by local small and medium enterprises and will allow them to participate in cheap capital that will make them competitive and able to compete in domestic and international markets", the Association said.

Business attitudes and the review

But how are Greek businesses dealing with the Recovery Fund? According to a recent Deloitte survey, they believe it represents a significant opportunity. But the majority of them do not know much about the programme. In particular, more than 9 out of 10 businesses that participated in the survey consider the programme to be a strategic and necessary tool to support entrepreneurship recovery policies in Greece. However, only 40% claimed to know "very" or "very well" about the Greece 2.0 programme and what it includes. In other words, 6 out of 10 businesses have little or no knowledge, so there is a clear risk of being excluded.

However, the aim of the Ministry of Finance is to continue the utilization of resources at a rapid pace but also to increase the information available to the businesses concerned. In this context, last week the Deputy Finance Minister participated in information events on the Opportunities and Prospects of Greece 2.0, which were held in Kavala and Serres.

There, Mr. Skylakakis, among others, spoke about the proposal for the revision of Greece 2.0, which will be presented to the Commission in the coming months. Among other things, it will provide for more reforms and a shift of resources to programmes with increased potential, as shown by absorption.