Bottlenecks in financing SMEs’ competitiveness

Given the importance of SMEs as the backbone of the EU economy, the financing of their activities is of particular relevance. Access to finance remains of greater concern to SMEs than to large enterprises, mainly because SMEs depend very much on bank financing. Even if access to finance has become, on average, a less important problem for European SMEs since 2012, a significant proportion of small businesses still experience financing barriers and this proportion varies strongly from country to country. In this article the authors analyse and summarise the current state of SME financing in Europe.

The article can be found in chapter 5, pages 193ff of the new EIB publication “Investment and Investment Finance in Europe – Financing productivity growth”, which provides a comprehensive overview of the developments and drivers of investment and its financing in the EU. It combines analysis of key market trends and developments, with a more in-depth thematic focus, which this year is devoted to the impact of financial constraints on investment dynamics. The article was published in the context of the 2016 EIB Economics Conference.

For more information contact:

Helmut Krämer-Eis

Head of EIF’s Research & Market Analysis

E-mail: h.kraemer-eis@eif.org

Tel.: (+352) 2485 81394

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