idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
What lessons can be drawn from the development of financing conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the Corona pandemic for the current situation? Researchers from the IfM Bonn have investigated this question in the studies "Financing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Corona Pandemic" and "Promotion of Sustainable Financing by the EU - Impact on SMEs".
At first, economic development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) significantly impacted access to debt capital during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to research by IfM Bonn: In the early phase of the crisis, it became abruptly more difficult for some SMEs to access debt capital because their profits collapsed. Although these companies could reduce their variable costs with the help of the government's emergency measures, the decline in sales could not be completely compensated. This had an impact on the creditworthiness of the companies.
However, thanks to the numerous government support measures, the financing conditions for the SMEs improved during the pandemic. The companies rated the subsidised loans and grants and the help with wage costs as "very important". As a result, the share of small and medium-sized enterprises reporting significant problems in accessing finance had returned to pre-pandemic levels by autumn 2022.
Paying attention to favourable framework conditions
In light of the current challenges, however, new difficulties are to be expected, according to the IfM researchers. The economic environment will become challenging due to the imminent ecological transformation, the shortage of skilled labour, and rising costs. The IfM Bonn researchers nevertheless recommend continuing to trust in the adaptability of SMEs – and, at the same time, improving the framework conditions for business enterprises. This can be promoted in the first place through approaches that successively increase in the cost of adverse external effects on the environment. This includes, for example, the taxation of CO2. This creates incentives for eco-friendly investments. Economic policy should also ensure that the planned extension of reporting requirements for loan capital applications does not lead to a further bureaucratic burden for small and medium-sized enterprises. This would increase the credit costs - and reduce the incentives to invest in the green transformation.
https://www.ifm-bonn.org/fileadmin/data/redaktion/publikationen/ifm_materialien/...
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