EBRD to invest 7bn euros in 2009

The EBRD has increased its investment sharply this year

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says it aims to invest a record 7bn euros (£6.2bn; $9.4bn) in 2009 to tackle the slowdown.

The news came as delegates met at the bank's annual meeting in London.

The money will be invested in infrastructure, energy, corporate and finance projects.

But EBRD president Thomas Mirow said the bank did not expect a recovery in central and eastern Europe until 2010 after a slow "bottoming out" this year.

The bank was established in 1991 to aid countries in the region as they shifted to a market economy, after communism.

Statesmen and bankers at the meeting said central and eastern Europe needed more help to counter the impact of the slowdown, even if the worst of the financial crisis was over.

EBRD head economist Erik Berglof said: "Banks can be supported by the provision of swap lines from international financial institutions".

"The extensions of such lines from the European Central Bank could help central banks in a few countries to improve the liquidity of foreign exchange markets," he added.

The bank said its investments to date of 2.3bn euros announced since the start of the year was more than double what was invested in the same period a year earlier.

Separately on Friday the economies of the 16 nations that comprise the eurozone fell by 2.5% in the first three months of 2009, data from the the EU's statistics agency Eurostat showed.