Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2022
An OECD Scoreboard
The COVID-19 crisis caused profound disruptions in the global economy, with SMEs and entrepreneurs, particularly hard hit. Swift measures implemented by governments and public financial institutions provided a crucial lifeline for liquidity-strapped SMEs.
The 10th edition of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2022: An OECD Scoreboard sheds light on the impacts of the crisis on SME finance, tracking the latest developments in debt, equity, asset-based finance, and framework conditions, along with recent policy developments for 48 countries around the world. It shows that lending continued to flow to SMEs during the pandemic, with unprecedented growth in outstanding SME loans. What is more, credit conditions relaxed significantly: interest rates registered record lows, interest rate spreads narrowed considerably, and collateral requirements declined in most Scoreboard countries. In contrast, alternative sources of finance such as leasing and factoring declined significantly, in part because of the large uptake of credit. Evidence on equity finance shows a resilient venture capital sector, with some fragility in early-stage finance.
The thematic chapter of this report assesses the evolution of SME financing support during the crisis, from the rescue to recovery phases. It documents a fall in the level of SME-related support in national recovery packages compared to earlier rescue measures.
Also available in: French
South Africa
Of the estimated 2.6 million micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa, about 37% are considered formal. Of the total, 54% are micro-enterprises and 15% are located in rural areas. The owners include individuals who have identified a business opportunity as well as those conducting some sort of business because of necessity, and for whom no alternative sources of income are available. Two out of three SME owners run their own enterprises and do not have any employees, while 32% provide between one and ten jobs. While growth in the number of SMEs over the last ten years has been lower than economic growth, the contribution by these SMEs towards South Africa’s gross value-added (which is equal to GDP before taxes and subsidies) increased from 18% in 2010 to 40% in 2020.