The NBU insists on further narrowing the state’s 5-7-9% preferential lending program.

The Affordable Loans 5-7-9% state program, despite recent changes that narrowed the financing limit of working capital to ₴5M, is still not sufficiently focused on helping businesses that need it, commented the NBU’s Director of the Financial Stability Department, Pervin Dadashova.

“There remain many areas of financing that arose in response to the realities of martial law and were needed at the height of the 2022 crisis but are not a priority anymore,” she added.

Dadashova specified that economic conditions are now better than in past years, so there is no need for comprehensive support. Therefore, the goal should be to narrow 5-7-9% lending support to investment projects in priority areas. One of the program’s biggest problems is a lack of funds for financing and the government’s expense incurred through compensating banks for issuing loans with preferable interest rates.

The only question is how quickly the government can implement the necessary changes.