At the end of the first quarter of 2012, average recourse to central bank funding by euro area banks in respect of total deposit liabilities stood at over 5%, slightly higher than the level observed after the Lehman collapse, with a very wide dispersion across euro area countries.
SMMEs now account for between a quarter and two-fifths of the worldwide manufactured exports. In Korea, SMMEs account for roughly 40 per cent of manufacturing exports. In Europe, 20 per cent of SMMEs are engaged in exports. It is generally accepted that SMMEs even have a greater role to play in developing economies especially when it comes to employment generation and output growth.