7 November 2024

• Firms reported little changes regarding the availability of bank loans. However, firms’ need for bank loans has declined moderately, partly due to high internal funds.
• Substantially fewer firms reported rising bank interest rates on loans, although many indicated a further tightening of other conditions.
• Firms’ inflation expectations continued to decline, with their median expectations for annual inflation in one, three and five years all standing at 2.9%.

In the newest round of the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE), fewer euro area firms reported increases in interest rates on bank loans (a net 4%, compared to 31% in the previous quarter) although a net 30% (28% in the previous quarter) signalled increases in other financing costs (i.e. charges, fees and commissions) (Chart 1).

In this survey round, a net 2% of firms reported a decline in the need for bank loans in the third quarter of 2024, up from 1% in the previous quarter. At the same time,…