Government approves credit line for micro companies

The Portuguese Government approved a new line of credit on Wednesday for small and medium companies which should become available within the next two weeks.

According to the Minister of State and the Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, the new line of credit will be managed and awarded through IAPMEI – the government support agency for SMEs – and will work in a similar way to the line of credit that was specifically created for companies in the tourism sector.
“The Council of Ministers today approved a decree-law that decided to create a line of credit for small and micro companies that will be operational within 15 days,” said the minister at a press conference on Wednesday.
The measure is contained within the State Budget for 2021 (OE2021) and was put forward by the Ecologist Party “Verdes” PEV). It foresees “credit shall be lent to micro and small companies through IAPMEI with a grace period of 18 months on repayments”.
“This line of credit will largely replicate the experience that is currently adopted to help companies in the tourism sector through a line of credit distributed by Turismo de Portugal and will permit companies of similar sizes in other activity sectors to also have access to credit under similar conditions as foreseen in the State Budget,” said Pedro Siza Vieira.
A second degree-law was also approved that will set up the Capitalisation and Resilience Fund. This fund falls under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The fund will also “recapitalise those companies which have been most affected by the pandemic, and capitalise other companies that have development, consolidation and growth potential”.
The funds will come from the total fund of €1.3Bn that makes up the National Recovery and Resilience Plan which foresees those loans made available from the European Commission to help deal with the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.