Spanish companies continued to cut their debt during the third quarter, in a context marked by higher financing costs derived from the rise in interest rates. This emerges from the data for Spain from the Survey on the access to financing of euro area firms, released this Wednesday by the Banco de España.
According to the results of the poll, Spanish firms continued to reduce their indebtedness and, moreover, did so at a more intense pace than in the preceding quarter. Between July and September, 13% of companies, in net terms, reported having reduced their debt ratio, that is, the relationship between their debts and their assets. In the previous survey, this percentage stood at 5%.
The adjustment extended across the entire business fabric and affected both SMEs, at 12%, and large corporations, at 14%.
With regard to loan conditions, companies passed on a new increase in interest rates for the third consecutive quarter. Both SMEs and large companies indicated an increase in financing costs. In addition, the guarantees required were increased and, especially, other expenses other than interest. In net terms, 30% of companies reported an increase in these other costs.
Bank financing needs eased slightly in the third quarter. As a result, the percentage of firms that went to request bank loans fell by 10 percentage points, to 18%.
Regarding the overall situation of companies, in the third quarter the net percentage of firms that notified an increase in sales was 6%, that is, 18 percentage points less than that recorded three months earlier. For its part, the net percentage of firms that pointed to an increase in labor costs was 55%, compared with the previous 65%.
In this scenario, the net percentage of firms that reported an increase in profits was again negative for the third consecutive quarter and stood at -12.7%. This is the worst figure since quarterly results began to be compiled, in the first quarter of 2024.