The credit constraints for German trade and industry fell slightly in January. 22.8% of the companies surveyed reported a restrictive credit policy on the part of banks. This result is 0.3 percentage points lower than in December. The German economy continues to enjoy very favourable financing conditions.
In manufacturing the credit constraints for large and medium-sized companies decreased markedly. Reports of restrictive credit constraints fell by 2.2 percentage points to 21.1% at large companies, and by 2.1 percentage points to 18.1% at medium-sized companies. Only small companies reported slight difficulties obtaining credit, with the number of “restrictive” responses increasing by 0.3 percentage points to 24.6%.
In construction credit constraints fell by 0.2 percentage points to 32.1%. In the distributive sectors, on the other hand, credit constraints rose slightly again, and now stand at 21.3%, 1.0 percentage points higher than in December.
Hans-Werner Sinn President of the Ifo Institute
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Legend: The credit constraint indicator is based on ca. 4,000 responses of firms in industry and trade from the sectors manufacturing, construction, wholesaling and retailing. The firms are asked to respond to the following question: “How would you assess the current willingness of banks to extend credit to businesses”? The answers to choose from are “accommodating”, “normal” and “restrictive”. The credit constraint is calculated from the percentages of the responses to the last of the three categories. For the compilation of the credit constraint indicator for German industry and trade, the percentage shares from manufacturing, construction and retailing and wholesaling are weighted with the average credit volume of these sectors in 2005.
Kunkel, André, "Kreditklemme: Gefahr erkannt, Gefahr gebannt?", ifo Schnelldienst 63 (09), 2010, 32-36 ( Abstract )
Abberger, Klaus, Christa Hainz and André Kunkel, "Kreditvergabepolitik der Banken: Warum leiden große Unternehmen besonders?", ifo Schnelldienst 63 (14), 2009, 32-34 ( Download )
Kunkel, André and Klaus Abberger, "Unternehmen berichten über restriktivere Kreditvergabe der Banken", ifo Schnelldienst 62 (07), 2009, 30-32 ( Abstract )
Abberger, Klaus and Kunkel, André, "Unternehmen leiden kaum unter Finanzierungsschwierigkeiten durch die Finanzmarktkrise", ifo Schnelldienst 61 (09), 2008, 29-31 ( Abstract / Download )
Credit Constraint Indicator29 February 201211:00 AM CET
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