The paper investigates the regional divides in firms' use of moratoriums and public guarantees on loans introduced following the pandemic. It analyses both the number of beneficiaries of the measures and the scale of the aid, measured by the share of credit assisted by the measures, for the companies that made use of them between June 2020 and December 2021.
Keeping firms' characteristics constant, the share of companies benefiting from moratoriums was similar between the Centre-North and the South; in the latter area, the use of guaranteed loans was more frequent. The scale of the aid was higher in the South for moratoriums but not for guaranteed loans, which was similar between the two areas. The differences could be traced back to the larger benefits under the measures for southern companies, usually subject to more stringent credit access conditions.
