The Cabinet decided Monday to amend the interest rate subsidy scheme for housing and corporate loans, to further support the economy amid the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Finance announced that the Cabinet decided the extension of the disbursement period and the opportunity to restructure loans granted on the basis of interest rate subsidy scheme.

According to the announcement, “the Cabinet taking into account the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, decided to amend the schemes to allow the extension of the disbursement period for the new housing loans, from two to three years, with retroactive effect from the date of approval of the loans”.

Additionally, it will be possible to restructure the loans granted on the basis of the two interest subsidy schemes with retroactive effect, provided that no new lending amount was granted through the restructuring, the interest rate was not increased, there was no second restructuring within their four-year interest rate subsidy period and the interest rate subsidy period did not exceed four years from the date of the first disbursement of the original loan.

The Interest Rate Subsidy Schemes for housing and corporate loans announced May 2020, were part of an emergency package of measures to support the economy from the consequences of the pandemic.

The application period for participation in the two Schemes ended on 31 December 2021 and the process of their implementation is ongoing.

According to the Ministry, there were 10,058 applications for a total amount of loans of approximately €1.7 billion. More specifically, 8,960 loans for an amount of approximately €1.36 billion concern new housing loans and 1,090 loans for an amount of €295 million concern new corporate loans.