Funding totaling BGN 455M is contracted.
The commercial banks in Bulgaria have disbursed the credit facilities extended by the Bulgarian Development Bank (BDB) for target funding of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SME) and agricultural manufacturers. The granted amount is BGN 455 million according to the data as of November 30, 2009.
A total of BGN 80 mln. has been granted for financing of agriculture. The rest of the funds will go for investment and working capital lending of SMEs. The banks have granted more than 1,240 loans opening 7,852 new working places as a result of the investment.
The most often financed sector is the trade with funds from the SME investment and working capital funding from the credit line. The sector ranks first with a share of 28.5% of all granted loans. Nearly 24% of the funds are contracted for projects in the processing industry, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishery with 22.5%.
The most active regions in utilizing the funding for agriculture are Veliko Turnovo and Stara Zagora, followed by Dobrich, Plovdiv and Pleven.
The funds have been granted by the Bulgarian Development Bank for the purpose of stimulating the access of the Bulgarian business to funding. The loans were granted under extremely preferential terms with an interest rate fixed up to 8%.
