EBRD says it will spend 1 billion euros in Ukraine this year

MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) -The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in Ukraine in 2022, the bank’s president Odile Renaud-Basso said on Tuesday.

She said the package was aimed at helping the Ukrainian economy and added in comments on the sidelines of the bank’s annual meeting in Morocco that the lender was willing to do more.

European Union trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the union was considering ways to give the EBRD more support, including in the form of guarantees, to help the bank increase its assistance to countries affected by the war in Ukraine.

Speaking after a meeting with Renaud-Basso in Marrakech, he estimated the cost of war damage to Ukraine at between 500 billion and 600 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9491 euros)

(Reporting by Ahmed El Jechtimi Writing by Angus McDowallEditing by Mark Potter)