ATHENS – The new guarantee instrument for providing liquidity to the market is expected to be available to entrepreneurs by the end of May, Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis said on Wednesday in parliament, answering a relevant question put by New Democracy (ND) deputy Konstantinos Bogdanos.

As Georgiadis said, "the day before yesterday, on May 11, a public invitation was made to the banks to come and sign the contract and after the 15-day deadline for signing, from May 27-28, the instrument will be available to entrepreneurs." He explained that entrepreneurs will be able to go to their banks and submit an application for funds.

Georgiadis thanked the Executive Vice President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager for the speed with which the European Commission (40 days instead of six months) gave Greece permission to use two billion euros from the NSRF programme to use as a guarantee, through the Development Bank, in the Greek banking system, to leverage it and increase the two billion euros to seven billion euros."

He also noted that "if we need to put in another billion (that is 3.0 billion euros), if we see that the programme is in great demand and disbursement is fast, we will do it."