{"id":28175,"date":"2023-08-20T13:48:43","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T13:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/espa.io\/recovery-fund-half-of-the-investing-smes-use-it\/"},"modified":"2023-08-20T13:48:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T13:48:43","slug":"recovery-fund-half-of-the-investing-smes-use-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/recovery-fund-half-of-the-investing-smes-use-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Recovery Fund: Half of the investing SMEs use it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/tameio-anakampsis-symvasi-me-eksi-trapezes-gia-daneia-ypsous-970-ekat-euro-1024x570.jpeg\" alt=\"Recovery Fund\" class=\"wp-image-25607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/tameio-anakampsis-symvasi-me-eksi-trapezes-gia-daneia-ypsous-970-ekat-euro-1024x570.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/tameio-anakampsis-symvasi-me-eksi-trapezes-gia-daneia-ypsous-970-ekat-euro-300x167.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/tameio-anakampsis-symvasi-me-eksi-trapezes-gia-daneia-ypsous-970-ekat-euro-768x427.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/tameio-anakampsis-symvasi-me-eksi-trapezes-gia-daneia-ypsous-970-ekat-euro.jpeg 1132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p><strong>Two years<\/strong> have passed since August 2021, when <strong>Greece received its first pre-financing payment from<\/strong> the Recovery Fund (RRF) <strong>resources<\/strong>. Since then, <strong>a significant part of<\/strong> the Fund&#8217;s <strong>actions<\/strong> have <strong>focused on upgrading the business sector<\/strong>, both in terms of <strong>digital and green transition<\/strong> and in terms of broader competitiveness enhancement.<\/p>\n\n<p>In this context and building on regular field research, the Economic Analysis Division of the <strong>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbg.gr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Bank of Greece<\/a>\n<\/strong> is examining the utilisation of the Recovery Fund resources by SMEs. The main finding of the analysis is the identification of early signs that <strong>the sector is benefiting, directly and indirectly<\/strong>. The <strong>role of the design of the investment programmes<\/strong> proves to be crucial, as they seem to achieve the dual objective of <strong>attracting &#8216;new&#8217; users<\/strong> and <strong>leading &#8216;old&#8217; users to the next stage of their development<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p>The role of the Recovery Fund appears to be important in a complex environment:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>(i) enhanced investment appetite (with 60% of SMEs planning to invest compared to 40% in the previous three years); and  <\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>(ii) an intensifying contractionary monetary policy<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-&#x3C4;&#x3B9;-&#x3B4;&#x3B5;&#x3AF;&#x3C7;&#x3BD;&#x3BF;&#x3C5;&#x3BD;-&#x3C4;&#x3B1;-&#x3C3;&#x3C4;&#x3BF;&#x3B9;&#x3C7;&#x3B5;&#x3AF;&#x3B1;\"><strong>What the data show<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<p>Indeed, the  <strong>half of SMEs with active investment plans<\/strong>  (27% of the total sector)  <strong>is targeting or already using relevant resources<\/strong>, creating  <strong>balanced financing structures of equity, loans and grants<\/strong>. In this context, investment interest is beginning to take on a practical dimension, with  <strong>the percentage of SMEs that have applied to the Recovery Fund to approach 11% in the first half of 2023<\/strong>  (14% in medium sized companies), while  <strong>the gradual reduction of inflationary pressure on raw materials is expected to activate an even larger part of investors<\/strong>  in the coming months. More importantly, despite the relatively high complexity of the Fund&#8217;s procedures, <strong>there seems to be no lag in the progress of investment implementation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<p>Specifically, <strong>6% of SMEs wishing to invest through the Recovery Fund are already in the implementation stage<\/strong> while a<strong>further 7% have advanced plans<\/strong> (with the corresponding percentages for &#8220;investors&#8221; outside the Fund being at similar levels, around 8%). It is worth noting that <strong>the Fund&#8217;s support is directed towards all categories of investments<\/strong> (from green and digital to innovation and partnerships), covering about half of each, highlighting its balanced design.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"569\" src=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/info-rrf-1024x569.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/info-rrf-1024x569.png 1024w, https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/info-rrf-300x167.png 300w, https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/info-rrf-768x426.png 768w, https:\/\/espa.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/info-rrf.png 1394w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-&#x3C4;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3B5;&#x3AF;&#x3BF;-&#x3B1;&#x3BD;&#x3AC;&#x3BA;&#x3B1;&#x3BC;&#x3C8;&#x3B7;&#x3C2;-&#x3B8;&#x3B5;&#x3C4;&#x3B9;&#x3BA;&#x3AD;&#x3C2;-&#x3B5;&#x3BD;&#x3C4;&#x3C5;&#x3C0;&#x3CE;&#x3C3;&#x3B5;&#x3B9;&#x3C2;\"><strong>Recovery Fund &#8211;<\/strong> <strong>Positive impressions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n<p>Apart from the obvious mobility around the  <strong>Recovery Fund<\/strong>, the current context is characterised by a wider range of investment instruments, with the  <strong>redesign of the NSRF and Development Fund to have enhanced their attractiveness for SMEs<\/strong>. In this context, the reading of the first data leaves a positive impression in terms of the effectiveness of all available investment programmes:<\/p>\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Given the desire of 60% of SMEs to invest, it is important that 25% of them (14% of the total) will use investment programmes for the first time (through the Recovery Fund, <a href=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/aid_type\/nsrf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NSRF<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/aid_type\/development-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Development Fund<\/a>). This shift largely reflects the improved design of these tools, in a way that improves their usability, especially for smaller businesses (18% new users for <a href=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/business_size\/small\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">small<\/a> vs. 9% for <a href=\"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/business_size\/medium\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">medium-sized<\/a> businesses).<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>At the same time, the attraction of the most dynamic enterprises as new users is a further indication of the effective design of the funding programmes. In particular, new users seem to be mainly firms that have had a high investment momentum in the past three years (with an average 8% increase in fixed assets), which the majority (63%) plan to intensify further in the next three years.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As far as &#8216;old&#8217; users are concerned, the design of the programmes also appears to be effective, as it largely succeeds in pushing them to the next step. With already strong sales (+5% p.a. in the past three years) and high extroversion (14% of foreign sales), experienced users are more oriented towards productivity improvements (through facility upgrades, digital and green investments) than capacity expansion investments.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<p>While the first signs of the effectiveness of the investment programmes are positive, it is equally important to underline that <strong>the beneficial action of the Recovery Fund in the SME sector is not limited to facilitating the implementation of<\/strong> its <strong>investment projects<\/strong>. At the same time, financing much of the infrastructure planned in the country,<strong>  helps SMEs indirectly, with more than 2\/3 of them expecting significant benefits from this upgrade.<\/strong>  Combining all of the above with the fact that  <strong>Greece is third in the EU in terms of absorption of funds<\/strong>  (36.4%, compared to the European average of 30.6%), there are reasonable expectations for a  <strong>the remarkable footprint of the Recovery Fund<\/strong>  to the real economy, by strengthening the country&#8217;s business fabric.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two years have passed since August 2021, when Greece received its first pre-financing payment from the Recovery Fund (RRF) resources. Since then, a significant part of the Fund&#8217;s actions have focused on upgrading the business sector, both in terms of digital and green transition and in terms of broader competitiveness enhancement. In this context and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2386,2392],"aid_type_posts":[2081],"activity_posts":[2017,2041,2013,2067,2063,2070,2107,2049,2076,2009,2015,2003,2045,2004,2108,2082,2051,2083,2065,2016,2005,2050,2058,2010,2055,2042,2084,2007,2040,2048,2085,2008,2052,2106,2074,2068,2012,2079,2006,2056,2011,2072,2014,2071,2069,2057,2066,2080],"investment_region_posts":[2022,2018,2053,2025,2026,2023,2028,2024,2019,2030,2027,2029,2020,2021],"business_type_posts":[2032,2031],"funding_type_posts":[2064],"business_size_posts":[2033,2034,2036],"category_of_beneficiary_posts":[2037],"class_list":["post-28175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-en-2","tag-support-for-businesses","aid_type_posts-2081","activity_posts-all-activities","activity_posts-accounting-services","activity_posts-agricultural-sector","activity_posts-agrotourism","activity_posts-aquaculture","activity_posts-boat-rental-companies","activity_posts-cafe-bars-cafeterias-traditional-cafes","activity_posts-camping","activity_posts-consulting-services","activity_posts-cultural-creative-industry","activity_posts-education","activity_posts-energy","activity_posts-engineering-services","activity_posts-environment","activity_posts-event-catering-services","activity_posts-fishery","activity_posts-food-industry-distillery","activity_posts-forestry-forestry","activity_posts-georgia","activity_posts-health-medicines-social-care","activity_posts-hospitality","activity_posts-hotels","activity_posts-informatics","activity_posts-information-communication-technologies-ict","activity_posts-land-water-air-transport","activity_posts-legal-services","activity_posts-livestock-farming","activity_posts-manufacturing","activity_posts-materials-constructions","activity_posts-mines-metals-latodes-mining","activity_posts-news-farmers","activity_posts-other-manufacturing","activity_posts-processing-of-agricultural-products","activity_posts-restaurants","activity_posts-retail-trade","activity_posts-rooms-apartments-to-let","activity_posts-services","activity_posts-sports-services","activity_posts-supply-chain-transportation-storage","activity_posts-telecommunications","activity_posts-tourism","activity_posts-tourist-furnished-residences","activity_posts-trade","activity_posts-travel-agencies","activity_posts-vehicle-rental-companies","activity_posts-warehousing-transportation-support-services","activity_posts-watersports","activity_posts-wholesale-trade","investment_region_posts-all-of-greece","investment_region_posts-attica-en","investment_region_posts-central-greece","investment_region_posts-central-macedonia","investment_region_posts-crete","investment_region_posts-eastern-macedonia-and-thrace","investment_region_posts-epirus","investment_region_posts-ionian-islands","investment_region_posts-north-aegean","investment_region_posts-peloponnese","investment_region_posts-southern-aegean-sea","investment_region_posts-thessaly","investment_region_posts-west-greece","investment_region_posts-western-macedonia","business_type_posts-existing-businesses","business_type_posts-new-businesses","funding_type_posts-loan","business_size_posts-medium","business_size_posts-small","business_size_posts-2036","category_of_beneficiary_posts-businesses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28176,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28175\/revisions\/28176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"aid_type_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aid_type_posts?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"activity_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/activity_posts?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"investment_region_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/investment_region_posts?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"business_type_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business_type_posts?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"funding_type_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/funding_type_posts?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"business_size_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business_size_posts?post=28175"},{"taxonomy":"category_of_beneficiary_posts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/espa.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_of_beneficiary_posts?post=28175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}