“The indicators of the surveyed enterprises continued to improve; however, most satisfied their financial needs only through internal resources, although almost half of respondents feel the need to borrow from credit institutions,” says Antanas Bumblauskis, Chief Economist of the Macroprudential Analysis Division of the Financial Stability Department of the Bank of Lithuania.
According to him, in the first half-year of 2013, business expansion was in the plans of more than a third of surveyed enterprises. Enterprises that participated in the Survey expect that in this period it will be easier for them to attract customers or external financing sources. Industrial and construction enterprises plan to borrow most actively.
In discussions on taxation reform, which is on-going in the public sphere, businesses indicated the possible future increase in the burden of taxes as the most important issue of the future. Among the greatest difficulties that will be encountered in the first half-year of 2013, the surveyed enterprises indicated increasing production costs and growing competition.
The issues that impact businesses least are attracting financing sources, lack of customers, and the suspension of the operation of some credit institutions.
Two thirds of enterprises that borrow believe that the level of lending has not changed, however, those that indicated easier lending conditions were larger in number than those that believe that the conditions have become more severe. In the opinion of enterprises, the biggest influence on the easing of lending conditions was from decreased ratio of loans and pledged assets. In the second quarter of 2012, 81.4 per cent of respondents received exactly the amount that they requested from the banks, while 7.2 per cent received less and 11.3 per cent of respondents had their requests rejected.
The Survey of Non-Financial Enterprises on the Financing of Their Activities is conducted twice a year, with the goal to assess the need of non-financial enterprises for financial resources, changes in borrowing from credit and other financial institutions and developments in lending conditions, as well as to receive information on changes in the financial situation and activities of non-financial enterprises. The non-financial enterprises were surveyed in March 2013; answers were received from 500 non-financial enterprises operating in Lithuania.
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