The sharp reduction in bank lending rates has been accompanied by easier access to funding, as recent surveys have shown.3 See the ECB’s euro area bank lending survey, July 2017, and the ECB’s Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises in the euro area, October 2016 to March 2017. Moreover, bank lending volumes have been gradually recovering since early 2014.
According to the latest Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises, covering the period from October 2016 to March 2017, euro area SMEs have continued to signal improvements in the availability of bank loans. Market-based funding conditions, too, have improved significantly in response to the corporate sector purchase programme launched in June 2016.