1.4 billion liquidity "injection" from the EIB

Following the agreement reached at today's meeting between European Investment Bank president Werner Hoyer with Finance minister Y. Stournaras and Development minister K. Hatzidakis the first money from the EIB funds for SME entrepreneurship, about 1.4 billion euros by the end of 2015, is expected to flow in the Greek economy from this fall.

As EIB vice president Sakellaris stressed, the ''drachma clause'' never existed; however, as Stournaras explained, "regarding the clause that payments will be in euros, it was noted today that there was no question in reference to the drachma but this point was not very clear."

As Finance minister Stournaras said, "we overcame an obstacle that was blocking the negotiation with the EIB to finance SMEs and other projects."

Development minister K. Hatzidakis said that "the agreement with the EIB is a vote of confidence for Greece as the funding is not just about financial support for SMEs and infrastructure projects but also to facilitate foreign investment and privatization in our country."

EIB president Werner Hoyer said that "it was a good opportunity to show our willingness for closer cooperation with the Greek government to revive the economy. We resolved an important issue in order to proceed in this difficult period with the investment effort in strategic sectors like that of energy."