01/06/2016 Publication - Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises in the euro area - October 2015 to March 2016
Overview of the results
According to the results from the 14th round of the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE), euro area SMEs were less concerned about access to finance as an impediment to their business compared with other factors related to their business activity. Indeed, “Access to finance” was considered the least important concern for euro area SMEs (10%) while “Finding customers” remained the dominant concern (27%), followed by lack of “Availability of skilled labour”, increases in “Costs of production and labour” and “Competitive pressures” and “Regulation”.
There is still significant divergence across countries regarding the difficulties in accessing external sources of finance. Some 31% of SMEs in Greece, 13% in Italy and 12% in Ireland and the Netherlands mentioned that access to finance was the most significant problem, compared with around 6% of SMEs in Austria and Germany and 8% of SMEs in Finland.
Euro area SMEs reported, in net terms2 , an increase in turnover (16%) which was widespread across most countries. Only SMEs in Greece recorded declining turnovers. Despite an environment of subdued price and wage pressures, a large proportion of SMEs continued to signal rising labour and other costs (44% and 29% respectively), as has been the case in practically every wave since the survey started. In net terms, only 1% of euro area SMEs stated that profits had declined, unchanged from the previous round.
Looking at the need (demand) for external sources of finance, euro area enterprises reported that their need for bank loans and overdrafts had increased somewhat. On balance, 1% of euro area SMEs reported an increase in their external financing needs for bank loans and 6% for overdrafts, similar to the previous survey round (see Table A). SMEs in Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands reported, in net terms, falling needs for external finance amid an environment of strong internal sources of finance.
Fixed investment and inventory and working capital remained the two most important purposes for which SMEs used their total (internal and external) financing, with their importance increasing with firm size. For the third time in a row, SMEs confirmed, on balance, an increase in the availability of bank financing (loans and bank overdrafts) and in the willingness of banks to provide credit at lower interest rates (see Table A). For the first time, micro firms also reported having benefited from this improvement. Across countries, SMEs in Ireland, Slovakia and Spain indicated, on balance, the largest improvement in the availability of bank loans, whereas SMEs in Austria and Finland reported a deterioration. In marked contrast to other countries, SMEs in Greece continued to record a worsening in the availability of bank loans, albeit less strongly than in the previous wave.
page source http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub
