Small and medium-sized enterprises applied for European funding over a six-month interval (October 2014 – March 2015) in a considerably lower share than corporations, found a survey on the access to financing of Romania-based non-financial companies and their capacity to cope with adverse financial conditions, published on Tuesday on the website of the National Bank of Romania (BNR).
‘Applications for European funds keep at a very low level, but an increase is however visible in the share of the companies that had such funds reimbursed over October 2014 – March 2015, compared to the previous semester,’ the document states.
As regards moves to access European funds, the number of approved files is relatively similar to that in the previous fiscal period.
‘The analysis of this aspect by company size reveals the situation is similar to the previous six-month period. The share of SMEs that applied in the past six months for accessing European funds is much lower compared to that of applicant corporations. Exporting companies sought and were granted approvals, farming companies had European funds reimbursed in a higher proportion than other categories of companies over the period October 2014 – March 2015,’ informs the BNR survey.
The survey on access to financing of Romania-based non-financial companies and their ability to cope with adverse financial conditions captures the opinions of the real sector on the most pressing problems in the specific activity, the availability of financing and the evolution of financing sources, the success rate in accessing financing from banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFC), and in accessing European funds, the companies’ relation with the banks and NBFCs, the sector’s perception of the cost of financing, the maximum affordable interest rate and the possible effects of the unfavorable evolution of interest rates, the perception of the implications of a possible appreciation/depreciation of the national currency etc.
The analysis was conducted October 2014 – March 2015, based on the responses offered by the companies to the aforementioned survey.
