OTS: KfW / KfW-ifo credit hurdle: access to credit in SMEs is improving …

KfW-ifo credit hurdle: SMEs’ access to credit is improving

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Frankfurt am Main (ots) –

– A quarter of small and medium-sized businesses report restrictive

banking behavior

– Credit constraints for large companies drop to 14.5%

– Demand for credit remains at a low level

After credit constraints hit a record high in the final quarter of 2022, small and

medium-sized companies in Germany at the beginning of the year more easily

bank financing. The KfW-ifo credit hurdle fell by 5.8 in the first quarter

percentage points to 25.5%. However, a quarter of the

SMEs asking for bank financing, the behavior of the

credit institutions as restrictive. This proportion is higher than the long-term

Cut. On the positive side, however, is the fact that the credit negotiations

became easier for all sectors of the economy compared to the previous quarter.

In the case of large companies, the easing in access to credit is even greater

out of. Overall, the credit hurdle for the big firms goes down nearly 10

percentage points to just 14.5%. However, there is different than in

SMEs significant differences between the economic sectors:

While the banks change their lending policies for large companies in the

Manufacturing eased significantly (-22 percentage points), it came for the

Firms in construction (+7.7 percentage points) and retail trade (+16.2

percentage points) to significant tightening. In the last few months the

Probability of energy shortages and continued extreme energy prices

dropped.

The proportion of companies that conduct credit talks with banks at all

has been moving sideways with fluctuations for the past two years. While

among small and medium-sized enterprises in the first quarter 20.9% (+1.6

percentage points) applied for a bank loan, this amounted to 28.8% (-0.4

percentage points) of large companies. Credit demand in both

Size classes are thus consistently below the long-term average.

“The defusing of the energy crisis in recent months is leading to a

lightening of the risk situation that goes hand in hand with improved access to credit,” says

dr Fritzi Köhler-Geib, Chief Economist at KfW. “At the same time, she stays

Loan demand remains at low levels without a clear trend. Relaxation

on the energy markets and the easing of supply bottlenecks reduce the

crisis-related liquidity requirements. This weakens the driving factor for

the strong lending. At the same time, the still weak are standing

economic outlook and high borrowing costs an increase in demand for

investment financing. those observed over the past year

double-digit growth in new lending to businesses should now

regress quickly.”

The current KfW-ifo credit hurdle is available at

https://www.kfw.de/kredithuerde

Press contact:

KfW, Palmengartenstr. 5 – 9, 60325 Frankfurt

Communication (COM), Christine Volk,

Tel. +49 (0)69 7431 3867, Fax: +49 (0)69 7431 3266,

Email: mailto:[email protected], Internet: http://www.kfw.de

Further material: http://presseportal.de/pm/41193/5498552

OTS: KfW

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