Twenty-seven percent of Hong Kong's small and medium enterprises see difficulties in gaining approval for credit lines in the first quarter, compared to 30 percent in the previous quarter, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's latest SMEs survey.
The investigation, which covers about 2,500 SMEs from different economic sectors each time, showed that SMEs' credit conditions remained broadly stable, with 73 percent of them presenting a "similar" or "easier" credit approval stance in the first quarter, up from 70 percent in the last quarter.
Among respondents with existing credit lines, 0 percent reported a "tighter" banks' stance, down from 1 percent in the previous quarter, HKMA said.
Meanwhile, 2 percent of the respondents reported that they had applied for new bank credit during the first quarter. For the respondents who had already known their application outcomes, 91 percent reported fully or partially successful applications, up from 77 percent in the previous quarter.
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