EBRD uses up €3bn allocated for Ukraine in 2022-23
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Monday that it has reached its target of deploying EUR 3 billion of financing in Ukraine’s real economy in 2022-23.
The funds were used to help limit the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, the EBRD said in a statement.
"We are proud to have reached the target we set ourselves. But it does not mean the work stops here," Matteo Patrone, EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, was quoted as saying.
"The needs in Ukraine are huge, and we will continue to support the economy for as long as it takes during the conflict, in line with our current investment levels, which may increase further once there is peace."
The EBRD’s future disbursements will depend on whether the bank’s governors approve a capital increase in the range of EUR 3 to 5 billion by year-end to extend maximum support for Ukraine.
One of the last assistance packages was a USD 100 million loan to Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP), one of Ukraine’s largest agricultural holdings, as part of a EUR 480 million financing package for the Ukrainian agricultural sector.
Supporting the private sector and supporting trade are two of the EBRD’s five investment themes in wartime Ukraine.
Through its Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), the bank has since last February supported close to EUR 800 million of trade in addition to more than EUR 700 million of new lending to municipalities and private companies operating in agribusiness and other critical sectors of the Ukrainian economy.
To reinforce Ukraine’s energy security, the EBRD has provided EUR 520 million for the electricity transmission company Ukrenergo’s liquidity, linked to market reforms, and EUR 300 million to the energy company Naftogaz.
On vital infrastructure, the EBRD has signed loans totalling EUR 250 million to Ukrzaliznytsya to support its operations and upgrade the country’s railway links with the EU to its west.
The EBRD is also providing EUR 182 million to upgrade a section of road between Lviv in the western part of Ukraine and Rava-Ruska on the Polish border, and is investing EUR 300 million in the EU’s Solidarity Lanes initiative to move Ukrainian grain out.
And in July, the bank provided EUR 9.6 million to expand a rail terminal near the Polish border and build a grain transshipments complex for the agribusiness company Agrosem.