Upward rates are moving the disbursements of new loans to the SMEs that make up her backbone Greek economy.

Specifically, according to converging estimates at a growth rate of close to 16%, disbursements of new business loans to small and medium -sized enterprises from the four systemic banks in the first half of the year, reaching € 1.21 billion. These loans relate to businesses with an annual turnover of up to EUR 2.5 million.

At the same time, according to published European Central Bank data (ECB), in June, the annual rate of credit expansion in Greece for loans to non -financial enterprises was the second highest in the eurozone at 16.6%.

This percentage is sixfold of the average annual rate of credit expansion to non -financial companies for the whole eurozone (2.7%).

In the first place in the ranking is Lithuania at an annual rate of 19.2%, in the second, Greece with 16.6%, in the third Croatia with 12.2%and Estonia in fourth with 11.2%. The Netherlands follows fifth place at 10.7%annual growth rate.

The last positions are occupied by Luxembourg (-5.2%), Germany (0.3%), Italy (0.4%) and Finland (0.7%).

The same figures show that in June, Greece showed the third highest performance in the eurozone in terms of credit rates in its total (non -financial) private sector, with an annual increase of 11.1%.

In the eurozone, the corresponding rate was 2.9%. Croatia is preceded by 13.3% and Estonia with 11.8% versus 2.9% in the eurozone. In the last places are Finland (0.5%), Austria (1.0%), Italy (1.4%) and Germany (2%).

The increased rate of disbursement, as they have pointed out, among other things, in their public placements, also indicates the improvement of the assessment and approval procedures on the part of banks, in particular in terms of evaluating the business plan and repayment capacity. All banks have now set up units and addresses exclusively for the financing of medium entrepreneurship, reinforcing the role of banks as a funding lever.