"The survey shows that many enterprises are financially viable and, little by little, there arises the appetite for borrowing – primarily leasing and bank loans," says Darius Kulikauskas, Head of the Macroprudential Analysis Division of the Financial Stability Department at the Bank of Lithuania.
According to the survey data, 61% of enterprises planning development intend to attract external financing sources. This is 7% more than half a year ago and 22% more than a year ago.
The most often indicated external financing sources included leasing (41%), credit lines (33%), trade credits (28%) and bank loans (27%).
The survey has also revealed that the financial position of enterprises kept improving despite the challenges that existed over the past half-year, for example, export restriction to Russia. Most of the surveyed entrepreneurs (60%) have also reported that the events in Ukraine would not affect the financial position of the enterprises they represent and their possibilities to repay debts.
For more than half of the surveyed enterprises their income increased; a fair part of them are planning development in the future as well. Most often, it was the income of enterprises involved in construction (59%) activities, while most rarely – of those involved in trade activities (48%).
Over half of the surveyed enterprises have also reported that they did not have any monetary liabilities to credit institutions in the second half of 2014. In addition, there was an increase in enterprises that were able to ease the burden of their liabilities. 27% of respondents claimed that their liabilities decreased in the second half of 2014. As compared to the previous survey, their share expanded by 7.5 percentage points.
For most of the enterprises (61%), which had applied to credit institutions to borrow or change the terms of current liabilities, the entire amount requested was borrowed. On the other hand, the share of requests rejected has been increasing for the second consecutive half-year; it amounted to almost a fifth of total requests. Over 60% of participants who applied to credit institutions believed that the possibilities for borrowing remained almost unchanged over the half-year, while for a fourth of the enterprises – improved. Most of the respondents indicated that the possibilities for borrowing were more favourable due to decreased interest.
