By Ukraine Rebuild News Staff, Sept 20, 2023
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development plans to invest about 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) per year in Ukraine this year and next but the figure could rise if reconstruction accelerates, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said at an event in London on Monday.
"It depends on the scenarios, but I would expect at least the same, the level of 1.5 billion euros a year on average, if in the context of war," she told Reuters on the sidelines of an event at Chatham House in London. "But if reconstruction really started to accelerate, it would increase probably."
The lender last year deployed 1.7 billion euros to support Ukraine's infrastructure and supply credit lines during the conflict.
In June, Renaud-Basso announced plans for 200 million euros in financing for the electricity transmission company Ukrenergo, 200 million euros for the gas company Naftogaz and 200 million euros for hydropower producer Ukrhydroenergo.
And earlier this month the lender re-allocated 182 million euros in financing from planned works in southern Ukraine to a major highway upgrade in the west of the country as the Russian invasion has shifted transportation patterns.
Several smaller loans include $10 million to support the transport fleet of Ukrainian crop producer IMC Group, 30 million euros in financing for Ukrainian agri-holding Astarta and 42 million euros in financing for Cersanit SA, a Polish ceramic tile and bathroom equipment manufacturer with a large operation in Ukraine, which the EBRD said will "play an important role in the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by war."
