Small and medium-sized Italian enterprises give work, but are not very productive. This was supported by the European Central Bank in an analysis published in the latest monthly bulletin. “In terms of contributions to employment and added value – reads the study –, the economic importance of SMEs is well above the average in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. At the same time, the productivity of Greek, Italian and Portuguese micro-enterprises is relatively low, contributing approximately 60% to overall company productivity, compared to 71% in the area as a whole”.
Italy is one of the leading countries in the Eurozone in terms of the importance of SMEs, which ensure 80% of employment, compared to 70% on the Euroland average. This is the third highest percentage after Greece (85%) and Cyprus (82%). And among Italian SMEs, a very high share is made up of micro-enterprises, which make up 95% of the total, against an average of 92% in the currency area.
These are companies that find it very difficult to obtain credit, also because they have to pay interest on loans more than one percentage point higher than those of a large company. In any case, "the most common form of obstacle was the rejection of the loan application - writes the ECB -, followed by obtaining a small part of the requested funds, while only a small number of SMEs refused the loan to due to excessive borrowing costs.
Furthermore, the Eurotower notes that "from a simple comparison between the interest rates on small loans, which are assumed to be granted mainly to small and medium-sized enterprises, and those on large loans, it emerges that last April SMEs paid, on average, interest about 150 basis points higher than that of large companies. The differences between countries remain considerable: in the same period the differential was equal to 250 basis points for Spanish SMEs, while it was around 100 basis points for German ones. Looking at the evolution over time, for Italian and Spanish SMEs the differentials have remained considerably higher than in the pre-crisis period, although they have shown a decrease since the last quarter of 2012”.
MODERATE RECOVERY FROM THE END OF THE YEAR, POSSIBLE FURTHER CUT IN RATES
As for the general economic situation and the prospects for monetary policy, the ECB essentially reiterates what President Mario Draghi said in recent days: interest rates "could be further reduced if this were made necessary by the evolution of the prospects for the price stability". Monetary policy "will remain accommodative as long as necessary" and "the Governing Council expects key interest rates to remain at or below current levels for an extended period of time". Economic activity “should stabilize and recover over the course of the year, albeit at a moderate pace”. In the first quarter of 2013, the unemployment rate rose to 12,2%, an all-time high, and according to the ECB, the results of the economic surveys signal a further decrease in jobs in the second quarter of the year.
