Financing constraints and firm characteristics evidence from Greek SMEs

The paper analyses financing constraints faced by Greek SMEs in 2014-2017, exploiting the micro dataset of Greek SMEs provided by the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises in the euro area (SAFE). More specifically, at the firm level, we examine whether certain characteristics of Greek firms such as firm size, age, exporting activity or performance were related to their access to bank credit and trade credit, while also examining complementarily the impact of the overall conditions in the economy and the banking sector. Overall, we find that firm size and performance were important limiting factors in firms’ access to credit, while exporting companies have been more active in requesting financing. In addition, when borrowers’ discouragement is taken into account, highly exporting firms and, in the case of bank financing, relatively younger firms too seem to be overall less likely to report constraints. Our evidence also corroborates the importance of domestic macroeconomic conditions and bank balance sheet strength for the severity of constraints encountered by SMEs.