EBRD, EIB and World Bank Group join forces to support Eastern Europe

TIRANA, March 2 – Up to 24.5 billion euro were committed for banking sectors and bank lending to enterprises from the largest multilateral investors and lenders in eastern Europe – the EBRD, the EIB Group, and the World Bank Group.
They have pledged to provide up to 24.5 billion euro to support the banking sectors in the region and to fund lending to businesses hit by the global economic crisis.
This initiative complements national crisis responses and will deploy rapid, large-scale and coordinated financial assistance from the International Financial Institutions to support lending to the real economy through private banking groups, in particular to small and medium-sized enterprises. The financial support will include equity and debt finance, credit lines, and political risk insurance.
Albanian authorities have not accepted that their country has been affected by the world crisis, though there have recently been hints that this is the case. Central bank authorities acknowledged that the country will suffer from now on due to slower remittances and direct foreign investment.
The IMF first said the country’s 2009 GDP would fall from the normal 6 percent in recent years to 3.5 percent. But earlier this year they further lowered it to below 3.5 percent.
The response from the international institutions takes into account the different macroeconomic circumstances in and financial pressures on countries in Eastern Europe, acknowledging the diversity of challenges stemming from the global financial retrenchment.