EBRD agrees to start process for North Africa expansion

ASTANA: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development agreed on Saturday to begin the process of expanding its lending operations into countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Board of Governors asked the EBRD's directors to come up with proposals by July 31to extend the European Union-backed lender's mandate into the region, the bank said during an annual meeting in the Kazakh capital.

Created in 1991 to help ex-Communist states transition to market economies, the EBRD lends in 29 countries in central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.