Small and medium-sized enterprises

Following Turkey's recent minimum wage hike, around 300,000 people working for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lost their jobs in January, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). 

The Bulgarian government is launching new loan options for businesses as of April, expecting to allocate up to EUR 600 M to small and medium enterprises, the country's Economy Minister Bozhidar Lukarski has said.

The real implementation of the the new Operational Program SME Initiative is expected to begin in August or September.

More than half of small and medium-sized companies in Germany believe the mass migrant influx can help alleviate the country's shortage of qualified labor and most are willing to hire refugees, a survey revealed on Jan. 26.

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos met with the director of Sparkassenstiftung fuer der Internationalen Kooperation, Niklaas Bergmann and the president of Deutscher Sparkassen und Giroverband, Georg Farenson.

Turkey recently raised the minimum wage by 30 percent to 1,300 Turkish Liras ($430) for over 5 million workers. This move is very good for a country where the hunger threshold for a four-member family is 1,450 liras ($480) and the poverty threshold is 3,966 liras ($1,313). I strongly support it. What's more, Turkey's recent growth has mainly been based on consumption.

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors has said it approved a micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and large enterprises (LEs) supply chain finance project for Turkey in the amount of $200 million in a written statement on Dec. 23. 

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has said it lent Turkey's Finansbank $100 million to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agricultural regions of Turkey in a written statement Oct. 13.
 

The European Commission adopted on Monday an Operational Programme worth EUR 102 M to boost the competitiveness of Bulgarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through increased access to finance.

The funds will be allocated from the European Regional Development Fund, the press service of the European Commission informs.

Bulgaria's CIBANK will be able to provide BGN 200 M (around EUR 100 M) in loans to local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) over the next three years under a deal with the European Investment Fund (EIF), the EU Commission has announced.  

?Making sure that the benefits of policies go to all parts of society?