Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises in the euro area
 April to September 2015
December 2015
 
Survey on the access to finance of enterprises, December 2015
1
 
Contents
Introduction 2
 
1
 
Overview of the results 3
 
2
 
The financial situation of SMEs in the euro area 6
 
3
 
External sources of financing and needs of SMEs in the euro area 12
 
4
 
 Availability of external financing for SMEs in the euro area 17
 
4.1
 
 Availability of external financing 17
 
4.2
 
Terms and conditions of bank loan financing 22
 
5
 
Expectations regarding access to finance 27
 
 Annex 1 Overview of the survey replies – selected charts 29
 
 Annex 2 Descriptive statistics for the sample of enterprises 35
 
 Annex 3 Methodological information on the survey 37
 
 
Survey on the access to finance of enterprises, December 2015
2
 
Introduction
This report presents the main results of the 13
th
 round of the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE), which was conducted between 21 September and 26 October 2015. The total euro area sample size was 11,226 enterprises, of which 10,238 (91%) had fewer than 250 employees.
1
 The report mainly provides evidence on changes in the financial situation, financing needs and access to external financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the euro area, and compares it with that of large enterprises. In addition, it provides an overview of developments in SMEs’ access to finance across euro area countries. The reference period is the period from April to September 2015.
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 See Annex 3 for details on methodological issues related to the survey set-up.