Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure BG-2020-16/637 – Updated – measures in Bulgaria
Country | Bulgaria , applies nationwide |
Time period | Open ended, started on 14 April 2020 |
Context | COVID-19 |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Supporting businesses to stay afloat
– Access to finance |
Author | Tsetomila Sabcheva and Luboslav Kostov (Citub) |
Measure added | 15 April 2020 (updated 18 April 2023) |
The JOBS microfinance institution, part of the Bulgarian Development Bank Group, has announced a microbusiness loan with 10% interest for companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows young companies to be able to finance themselves with a working loan to retain staff if there are other reasons not to take advantage of the 60:40 measure.
The bank considers a possibility to make the credits interest-free over the period of the coronavirus crisis.
The portfolio guarantee applied by the Fund may also be used after the end of the period of emergency and, according to the Fund, is a suitable product for financial recovery at a time when banks would again be uncertain about lending to the business.
The Fund of the Bulgarian Development Bank will provide banks with guarantees worth of BGN 170 million (approx. €85 million), and expects them to provide loans of up to BGN 850 million (€425 million), mainly for small and medium-sized enterprises, in the next one year. The Microcredit Fund tool is aimed at small companies - the so-called micro-enterprises, as well as companies that have just started their business (to have up to three years of business history at the moment, with possible expansion - up to five years).
The idea is to enable banks to support this vulnerable group of start-ups that may have started a small family business with loans up to BGN 50,000 (€25,000). This will support their investment plans for the crisis and working capital so that they can continue their operations.
This tool is aimed at a target group of recipients who generally do not have easy access or have no access to bank financing at all - companies with no credit history.
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
21 February 2023 |
According to the Integrated Information portal , the measure is now targeting micro and small companies, and includes grants of between BGN 3,000 and BGN 10,000 for micro and small enterprises. The total budget is BGN 173 million. The beneficiaries are micro- and small-enterprises with up to 50 employees, registered before 01 July 2019, from all economic sectors (except those covered by the Rural Development Programme), which have suffered a decline of at least 20% in their turnover for the month of April 2020 compared to the average monthly turnover in 2019, with a minimum turnover of the applicants for 2019 - BGN 30,000. According to the available official information, the measure seems to be open ended. |
As of 17 December 2020, financial agreements have been signed with 8 banks with a total amount of portfolio guarantees of BGN 649,000,000. The loans confirmed by BDB for financing as of 18 December 2020 are over 1,220 with a total amount of BGN 152,089,070.
The progress of the program for the last 14 days has been submitted by the commercial banks new data shows nearly 160 loans approved for financing, for over BGN 15,000,000.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers |
One person or microenterprises
Start-ups |
Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
Company / Companies |
Companies
National funds |
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Unknown | Consulted |
Form | Not applicable | Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
n/a
Employers' organisations actively participated in the debate on supporting small and medium-sized businesses.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), COVID-19: Loans to microenterprises, measure BG-2020-16/637 (measures in Bulgaria), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/BG-2020-16_637.html
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