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One of the distinguishing traits of Spain’s productive landscape is the significant weight of its micro and small enterprises, which generate 60% and 44% of all jobs and GDP in Spain, respectively, well above the EU averages. But the small size of Spanish companies serves as a barrier in terms of the ability to invest in the factors that drive productivity (R&D, human capital, international expansion, etc.) as well as in terms of their access to finance. The findings of the latest ECB survey addressing firms’ access to finance show that micro and small enterprises face harsher financing conditions, particularly in the case of micro enterprises. Although these terms and conditions have improved substantially in recent years, firms with fewer than 50 employees are perceiving the improvement to a lesser degree. The good news is that the differences in spreads on bank loans by loan size have narrowed and that access to finance is now the key problem for only a very small percentage of Spanish companies (around 7%), irrespective of size. In addition, financing conditions have improved in terms of interest rates, but have gotten tighter in terms of commissions and collateral, more so for micro and small enterprises.

Maudos, J. (2018): “Bank financing for micro and small enterprises: Spain in the European context”, SEFO – Spanish Economic and Financial Outlook, 7(2), marzo, pp. 45-59.