ATHENS – There were 291 investment projects with a total budget of 10.53 billion euros submitted for financing from the loan arm of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan ‘Greece 2.0’ within 2022. Of this amount, 4.5 billion euros correspond to loans from the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RFF), 3.51 billion euros was capital from banks and 2.52 billion euros were funds put up by investors.

Alternate Finance Minister Thodoros Skylakakis commented: “The loan arm of the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience is an extremely successful developmental tool, as shown by the figures for its implementation. Strong interest from the investment community has been recorded as, within six months, 291 proposals have been submitted with a total budget exceeding 10.5 billion euros, while the investments are scattered, geographically, in more than 100 municipalities throughout the country. In fact, the loan agreements that have been signed include many industrial and tourism investments, which contribute decisively to boosting local economies, while the specific tool plays a very significant role in the green energy transition as well. Constituting the largest and fastest investment tool the country has ever had, the loan arm of the Recovery Fund still has much potential, as it can cover investment plans up to a total amount of roughly 30 billion euros.

The investment plans submitted so far are in various stages of the process of receiving funding and concern many different economic sectors, from industry and retail to energy and services. More than half of the proposals, or 167 in total, amounting to 2.25 billion euros, were submitted by SMEs.

So far, the process has been finalised with the signature of loan contracts for 68 investment plans, with a total budget of 3.22 billion euros, of which 1.2 billion euros are from the RFF, 1.28 billion euros are from banks and 741 million euros from investors. The loans have an interest rate of 1.2 pct and an 11-year repayment period, on average.