Access to credit continues to improve, says Ifo survey

German industry is getting access to bank loans following the seventh successive month of easing of credit constraints, according to a survey carried out by Ifo.

The Munich-based research group’s president, Hans Werner Sinn says the results show the ‘recovery in German is currently not being constrained much at all by banks’ lending practices.’

Of the 4,000 firms canvassed by the group in July, 31.6% complained of restrictive banking lending policies, compared with 34% in June. The result is a significant improvement from the previous year when in July 2009 discontent within the industry over lending had reached 45.1%, its highest point of the financial crisis.

The credit hurdle fell in all surveyed sectors, with the manufacturing industry experiencing a drop in complaints among all company sizes.

For large companies the credit hurdle fell to 36.7%, from almost 40% in June, and for mid-sized companies it fell to 30% from 33% in the previous month. The strongest easing was for small manufacturers where the credit constraints weakened by 5.2 percentage points to 30.5%.

In construction 38.2% of the survey participants reported difficult access to credit, down from almost over 41% in June, while the distributive trade credit hurdle fell to 28.5%, down from 30% the previous month.