Banks surveyed for the EIB’s 2021 Finance in Africa report were able to avoid liquidity shortfalls, but saw the deteriorating financial situation of their small business clients as the worst effect of the pandemic on their business, which may undermine the economic recovery.11 The EIB supports EU policy in sub-Saharan Africa under the EU/Africa-Caribbean-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the EIB’s. [...] The EIB is committed to supporting the implementation of EU Neighbourhood Policy, including the 2021 New Agenda and the Economic and Investment Plan, which foresees new areas of cooperation on the green and digital transitions, as well as on economic resilience and inclusive growth. [...] Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has also had a strong economic and social impact on the region, with the number of people living in poverty rising 10% to 209 million in 2020.19 While the economic fallout was particularly severe for tourism-dependent countries in the Caribbean, workers in services and the informal sector were also more vulnerable. [...] It examines the economic risks facing countries from the climate transition and from climate change itself, the challenges of greening the private sector in Europe’s neighbourhood, and the role of changes in the banking sector, with a focus on Africa. [...] Enterprise Surveys carried out by the EIB together with the World Bank and the EBRD in the Eastern Neighbourhood, Western Balkans, Central Asia and selected countries in the Southern Neighbourhood reveal that around 70% of firms in these regions carried out some kind of green investment in the three years prior to the surveys.
Authors
- Pages
- 90
- Published in
- Luxembourg
