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