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News from 2023-02-02 / KfW Research
KfW-ifo Credit Constraint Indicator Q4 2022
The situation in the credit market is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses
In the final quarter of 2022, the KfW ifo Credit Constraint Indicator for small and medium-sized enterprises increased for the third consecutive time. Of the surveyed SMEs who were in loan negotiations, 31.3% regarded the policies of banks as restrictive – 3.4 percentage points more than in the previous quarter. With that, the Credit Constraint Indicator for SMEs reached a new record high since the current survey methodology was introduced in 2017. Tighter lending conditions affected mainly SMEs in retail (+8.6 percentage points) and the services sector (+6.7 percentage points). For manufacturers, on the other hand, the tense situation in the credit market appears to have eased slightly on the previous quarter (-2.9 percentage points).