Loans to businesses increased by 13.3% in 2020, and by 20.3% for SMEs alone, which have made massive use of state guaranteed loans (PGE) to cope with the Covid-19 crisis , the Banque de France reported on Wednesday.
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Corporate debt in December 2020 reached 1190 billion euros, including 523.7 billion for SMEs, said the central bank.
Unsurprisingly, outstanding loans increased significantly in accommodation and catering, with an increase of 34.9%.
The use of credit also increased sharply in information and communication, with 26.6% increases in outstandings, business advice (26.2%) and construction (22.1%).
The increase is smallest in agriculture and real estate activities, with 5.9%.
Cash flow doubled
At the end of January, the Banque de France had indicated that the flow of loans granted over the whole of 2020 to non-financial companies had amounted to 139.4 billion euros.
The flow of cash loans alone amounted to 89.1 billion euros, or "
almost double that of 2019
", notes the issuing body.
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This amount is lower than the approximately 130 billion euros of EMPs distributed last year because some companies have decided to repay their EMPs quickly, without waiting for the end of the deferred repayment period, initially one year but which was increased to two years.
