Middle East’s best bank for SMEs 2019: ADCB

Funding for small and medium-sized businesses remains largely deficient across the Middle East. The region’s economies could grow by a further 1% each year if access to finance improved for SMEs, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Christine Lagarde said earlier this year.

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Funding for small and medium-sized businesses remains largely deficient across the Middle East. The region’s economies could grow by a further 1% each year if access to finance improved for SMEs, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Christine Lagarde said earlier this year.

“In the Arab region, SMEs represent 96% of registered companies,” said Lagarde. “They also employ half the labour force, yet their access to finance is the lowest in the world: lending to SMEs in the region is only 7% of bank lending.

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