No. 665 - Financial support measures and credit to firms during the pandemic

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by Stefania De Mitri, Antonio De Socio, Valentina Nigro and Sabrina PastorelliDecember 2021

The study explores the main features - size, industry and riskiness - of the firms that had access to the financial support measures adopted in Italy during the pandemic, namely guaranteed loans and debt moratoria. Furthermore, the analysis assesses the role of the public support initiatives in shaping the overall trend of credit to firms, also distinguishing between the enterprises that benefitted from the measures and those that did not.

The measures introduced by the government have fostered credit growth not only for smaller firms, typically more dependent on bank loans, but also for medium-sized and mid-cap companies. This has been especially true for the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic. Access to state-backed loans has been wider for financially solid companies; recourse to moratoria has been higher for financially vulnerable firms.

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