The European Commission, through Portugal's Caixa Geral de Depósitos will make €200 million available to help business financing, an area that Brussels has identified as a key weakness in Portugal’s economy.The expectation is that 1,250 small and medium-sized companies will benefit from loan guarantees available as from Thursday, May 24.
"With today's agreement between CGD and the Juncker Plan, another €200 million will be available to around 1,250 Portuguese companies that need risk finance to help them grow and achieve their ambitions," said the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, in a statement released by the Commission.
This agreement between CGD and the European Investment Fund (EIF), in which the European Commission has a 30% stake, is part of the InnovFin financial instrument.
According to the statement, Caixa Geral will make loans with "favourable conditions" for small and medium-sized companies over the next two years.
"Our ambition is to grow in the lending to innovative SMEs," said Paulo Macedo, the president of Caixa Geral, a public bank.
On Wednesday in the Specific Country Recommendations, the European Commission pointed to the financing of Portuguese companies as one of the main weaknesses of the Portuguese economy.
"Getting access to stable financing, and in particular capital (as a shareholder), is considered one of the biggest challenges for Portuguese companies," Brussels explained in the document.
According to data from the European Commission, Portugal is fourth in the list of countries that have benefitted the most from the Juncker Plan, when taken as a percentage of GDP.
In all, Portugal already has received €1.9 billion: € 1.1 billion for infrastructure and innovation projects and €800 million for small and medium-sized enterprises.
