The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has disclosed that it provided €709 million of investments in 32 operations in Romania last year, as part of a record €13.1 billion at reported rates delivered across the Bank’s regions in 2022.

This was the highest level of EBRD investment in Romania in more than a decade, the second highest level ever achieved, and substantially above the EBRD’s 2021 figure of €546 million. Meanwhile, cumulative EBRD investments in Romania have now topped the €10 billion mark.

The previous record for EBRD Romanian investments was in 2009. At the time, the bank committed a record €720 million across 23 investments.

The 2022 figures were achieved in the face of a challenging global economic environment in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine – confirming the EBRD’s consistent role in support to its countries of operations and clients.

Out of the total investments in Romania, green economy investments added up to €436 million, representing 61 per cent of the total.

The EBRD’s business volume in Romania in 2022 was mainly attributable to the private sector, with 75 per cent of investments supporting private entities.

Romania’s active portfolio amounts to more than €2.5 billion which, together with annual investment volumes, places the country as one of the top countries in which the EBRD operates.

Overall, EBRD green economy financing reached 50 per cent of total business volume in 2022, meeting the Bank’s pledge to make at least half of its financing green by 2025 for the second year running.

A leader in climate finance, the EBRD announced in December that it had fulfilled a second pledge to align all its activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement on limiting climate change.

“We did more than break a record, we exceeded our greatest expectations despite the tragedy of the war on Ukraine and the regional and global crises it has brought in its wake,” said EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso. “This impressive operational performance is testimony to our resilience and determination to support our countries of operation and clients.”

EBRD’s Response to Russia’s War

The EBRD’s response to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on 24th February, 2022, has been to commit to investing €3 billion in Ukraine in 2022-23, with the exceptional support of shareholders and donors who share part of the risk of the investments the EBRD has taken on its own book.

In 2022, the Bank provided €1.7 billion to support the real economy in Ukraine and mobilised a further €200 million from partner banks.

As a result of the war, the European bank’s expansion to sub-Saharan Africa was agreed upon in principle but pushed back in practice as the war in Ukraine prompted some deft diplomacy at the lender.

Going beyond existing countries of operation in northern Africa has been a topic of discussion since at least 2018. And in 2020, shareholders agreed that they would “consider an update” in 2022 on the idea of lending in sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq by 2025.

However, governors emphasized that the war on Ukraine has prompted a need “to reconfirm that any limited and incremental expansion to sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq would not in itself impair the Bank’s ability to support its existing countries of operations, compromise the Bank’s triple-A credit rating, or lead to a request for additional capital contributions.”

According to a note from EBRD’s evaluation department in January, last week’s meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, was supposed to produce a decision on “whether, and if so, when, to how many, and which countries the Bank may expand.”