May 22 (SeeNews) - Romania's government has approved a memorandum to grant over 8 billion lei ($1.8 billion/1.65 billion) in loan guarantees to coronavirus-hit companies with an annual turnover higher than 20 million euro ($21.8 million) that have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The state will offer guarantees for up to 80% of the credits for a period of six years, and will cover up to 50% of the interest, government spokesman Ionel Danca said in a press briefing broadcast on Digi 24 on Thursday evening.
The guarantee scheme will be adopted by the government at its next meeting through an emergency decree and will have to be approved by the European Commission to take effect.
The scheme will be carried out by local lender EximBank.
On Wednesday, the parliament passed legislation which doubles the ceiling for credit guarantees for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) affected by the coronavirus crisis to 30 billion lei.This scheme too needs approval from the European Commission to take effect.
(1 euro=4.8422 lei)