Germany May Lend to Italy, Portugal Businesses

Germany plans to expand a credit scheme for small and medium enterprises from crisis-hit Spain to also cover Portugal and Italy, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying Sunday.

Under the Spain program, which Schaeuble recently presented to parliament, Germany's KfW public investment bank will offer 800 million euros (about $1 billion) in loans to businesses via Spain's ICO bank.

"I have told my Portuguese colleagues already: you can have all this too," Schaeuble was quoted as telling the magazine Wirtschaftswoche or Business Week.

The report said Germany would extend the same offer to Italy.

Schaeuble is set to meet the Italian and French finance and labor ministers in Rome on Friday.

The report said launching the program for Greece would initially be more difficult because it lacked a similar development bank, although a partner institution could be set up.