Madrid, Nov 6 (EFECOM).- The granting of new loans to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) has slowed down in the second quarter of 2023 after growing 5.4% year-on-year, to 41.4 billion euros, the increase lowest since June 2021, according to Cepyme’s “SME Financing Report” released this Monday.
In a context of lower volume of access to credit due to higher rates and economic uncertainty, new loans are equivalent to 12.7% of GDP on average over the last four quarters, compared to 14% of GDP on average in 2019 and at 15% on average for the pre-pandemic five years.
“The worsening of access to bank financing is somewhat more marked in the case of medium-sized companies, whose new loans reduce their term and average amount,” highlights the SME employers’ association.
The granting of new loans has weakened more in medium-sized firms, since in the second quarter they raised 1.7% more than a year ago (10.5 billion), while in small firms the growth was 6.6%. (35.8 billion).
Corrected for the effect of inflation, the volume of new loans in the second quarter is 9% lower than in the same period in 2019 and represents the second lowest amount for a second quarter since 2014.
The increase in the cost of financing has manifested itself with an increase in the average interest rate in the second quarter to 4.36%, the highest since 2008, chaining four quarters of increase. However, this increase is slightly lower for Spain than for the euro area (4.58%).
The average term of new loans is 10.7 months, a time that has been shortening for nine quarters.
Compared to the second quarter of 2019, the average loan size has seen a decrease of 7.5% for small businesses and 16% for medium-sized businesses, in inflation-adjusted terms.
In addition, the proportion of loan applications rejected by entities has increased and has accumulated five quarters of increases, due to the tightening of granting criteria and a “lower risk tolerance,” the study indicates.
Added to this is the worsening balance sheets of SMEs, which has reduced their ability to meet the guarantees required by credit institutions. EFECOM
nva/mmr/may
2023-11-05 23:28:58
#loans #SMEs #slow #growth #Cepyme
