The cycle of lowering interest rates launched by the European Central Bank starting in June means that companies are already receiving the loan costs as less high compared to the beginning of the year. Even so, in line with European companies, the need to request bank loans and lines of credit among Spanish firms decreased moderately in the third quarter compared to the previous one, also due to high internal funds. This is one of the conclusions that emerge from the Survey on access to financing for companies in the euro zone published by the European Central Bank (ECB) this Thursday.
In net terms, fewer companies in Spain declared they needed bank loanswith a reduction of 3% compared to the 4% increase registered in the second quarter. “The most common reason given by companies for not requesting a bank loan is the amount of internal funds they have, which companies consider sufficient to finance their business plans,” the European institution said in the report.
Focusing the analysis on credit lines, Spanish companies have also indicated a decrease in the need to request credit lines, with a decrease of 5% compared to an increase of 6% in the previous quarter.
Short-term uncertainty
However, the dark clouds that persist over the growth of the European economy weigh on optimism among companies. Looking ahead, these were shown less positive about the availability of bank loans in the following three months. In fact, only a net 6% of the firms surveyed stated that their perception of banks’ willingness to grant credit was improving, compared to 9% three months ago.
Although the Spanish economy has so far shown one of the best performances in the European Union due to the strong pull of the services sector, growth in the euro zone has been just above zero for more than a year due to the slowdown in its manufacturing activity. .
Economists at Goldman Sachs currently see potential growth of 1% in the eurozone, below the pre-pandemic average of 1.2%, and expect growth to slow to 0.8% in 2030. “The main driver of the slowdown in our estimates in a lower contribution of the labor force, reflecting demographic aging and a normalization of net migration,” they said in a note to clients.
According to the ECB survey, 7% of companies in the eurozone indicated that their turnover had increased in the last three months, a percentage that practically did not change compared to the 8% in the previous survey. Likewise, in general, respondents were optimistic about the evolution of the business in the following quarter.
Nevertheless, expect their business margins to remain under pressuresince wage growth exceeds increases in sales prices. Specifically, salaries are expected to increase by 3.5% in the next 12 months, while sales prices by 3%. “The survey indicates that cost pressures remain widespread in companies of all sizes,” said the ECB, based on data collected from nearly 13,000 companies, the majority of which have fewer than 250 employees.
#Spanish #companies #reduce #request #financing #banks #ECB
