So that this march does not stop, the Government and the private sector agree that it will be necessary to enhance access to credit. In this sense, the Secretariat of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurs will continue promoting differential lines, but will also make more funds available to guarantee firms that require it. The FOGAR will leverage credits for up to $ 900,000 with a focus on SMEs that do not have access to the formal financial system.
The credit expansion targeted by the government will also have a federal character. Through the Productive Development Fund (FONDEP), $ 12,500 million in credit tools will be issued to the entire national territory through funding of $ 500 million to the local financial entity determined by each jurisdiction. It will seek to support regional strategic projects that allow incorporating jobs, increasing production, promoting exports and / or substituting imports.
SME credit has been recovering. According to the latest report from the Association of Metallurgical Industries of the Argentine Republic, it continues to exhibit a more virtuous dynamic than total financing: it grew 6.2% in real terms in October compared to September and marks 19 consecutive months of year-on-year growth. In this way, it is at the highest level since October 2018.
Parallel to this rally, conditions also appear more convenient. The same survey shows that during November in the banking market, the discount rate for checks fell 2.5% year-on-year, fell to 28.8% on average for this segment. While the average single signature loan rate fell to 33.5%, 0.5% less than during the same month in 2020.
“Credit policy was central to face the crisis unleashed by the pandemic. It was unprecedented in history, we focused on SMEs and that had a clear macroeconomic effect. Within this framework, one of the keys was the guarantees that allowed the massive expansion of loans, ”Guillermo Merediz, the secretary of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurs, told Ámbito.
Finally, sources from the Ministry of Productive Development let it be known that they will seek to “replace the Leliq and the Passes so that this liquidity can be exchanged for loans to the productive sector, with a guarantee that they are backed by a fund that, if necessary, of payment, responds in 20 days ”.
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