EIB redirects its business to fight corona pandemic

BRUSSELS, Jan 20, (KUNA): In the year of the worst global health and economic crisis for generations, the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group Wednesday announced that it rapidly redirected its business to fight the COVID19 pandemic and its economic consequences on all fronts.

It increased financing volumes to 76.8 billion euro (USD 93 billion), exceeding its own targets. A third of these funds, 25.5 billion euro (USD 31 billion) went into the immediate crisis response that started with a first package in March, said the EIB in its annual report.

“In the course of the year we dramatically increased and accelerated our involvement in fighting this devastating pandemic, helping thousands of companies in the European Union and across the world,” said EIB President Werner Hoyer at the EIB Group’s annual press conference via video link from Luxembourg today.

“The fight against the pandemic and its economic consequences will keep us busy in 2021,” he stated.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis are a twin challenge for the whole world, and this is why the EIB Group increased its efforts to support the EU neighbourhood, Africa and other regions, noted the report.

13 percent of last year’s EIB financing 10.2 billion euro (USD 12 billion) went into countries outside the EU.

The EU bank achieved record lending in Africa, signing a volume of more than 4.7 billion euro (USD 5.7 billion), a 50 percent increase over the year before.