BDL to raise ceiling for
industrial export soft loans

Conditions to ease

in a bid to benefit SMEs

The Central Bank (BDL) will raise the ceiling of soft loans provided by banks to finance the working capital of industrial exporters to $3 million from $2 million, according to Wael Hamdan, Director of BDL’s Financing Unit.

The decision is an amendment to a BDL ruling addressed to the banks last May through intermediate Circular 462.

Manufacturing companies that export at least 25 percent of their output will be eligible for the soft loans instead of the current 50 percent.

The loan is renewable on a yearly basis instead of the three-year term approved in Circular 462.

BDL had stated in Circular 462 that it will slash the reserve requirements of banks by an amount equivalent to the total value of the loan’s principal.

The loan must be denominated in lira. Interest rates, fees, and all other expenses should not exceed three percent per annum.

Manufacturing, as well as other vital sectors, already benefit from incentives provided by the Government and BDL.

Reported by Shikrallah Nakhoul and Yassmine Alieh