Financing of entreprises - 2025-03
Published on the 14th of May 2025
Growth in corporate loans remains steady
- In March 2025, year-on-year growth in financing granted to non-financial companies (NFCs) stood at +1.9%, a stable rate over the last three months. The growth rate of debt securities financing is up (+1.2% after +0.8% in February), while bank credit is holding steady (+2.2% after +2.3%). The latter continues to be driven by investment credit (+3.4% year-on-year, unchanged from the previous month).
- The cost of new financing for NFCs was virtually stable in March (3.72%, after 3.70% in February), with the continued fall in the average rate for new bank loans (3.80%, after 3.92%) being offset by the rise in the cost of new debt issuances (3.55%, after 3.28%).
1 - Overview of NFCs : Outstanding amounts and flows in € Bn, annual growth rate and cost in %
(non-seasonally adjusted) ![]()
| Mar-25 (p) | Annual growth rate | Cost (annual Interest rate) | |||||||||
| Outstanding
amounts |
Transactions
(cumulative over 12 month) |
New business
(cumulative over 12 month) |
Mar-24 | Jan-25 | Feb-25 (r) | Mar-25 (p) | Mar-24 | Jan-25 | Feb-25 (r) | Mar-25 (p) | |
| NFC's global financing | 2,079.7 | 38.1 | 687.9 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 4.37 | 3.85 | 3.70 | 3.72 |
| Loans | 1,376.0 | 30.1 | 333.9 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 4.68 | 4.05 | 3.92 | 3.80 |
| Investment | 993.4 | 3.7 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 3.4 | ||||||
| equipment | 624.9 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.5 | 3.6 | ||||||
| real-estate | 368.5 | 3.7 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.1 | ||||||
| Treasury | 307.0 | -6.7 | -2.9 | -1.9 | -1.6 | ||||||
| Other lending | 75.6 | 11.3 | 6.9 | 5.2 | 3.6 | ||||||
| Loans up to €1 million | 116.7 | 4.62 | 4.06 | 3.93 | 3.88 | ||||||
| Loans over €1 million | 217.3 | 4.71 | 4.04 | 3.91 | 3.76 | ||||||
| Securities other than shares | 703.7 | 8.0 | 354.0 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 3.65 | 3.48 | 3.28 | 3.55 |
(r) : revised data ; (p) : provisional data
Monthly changes in outstanding loans by purpose (seasonally adjusted data in € Bn)![]()
Cost (all maturities combined) by financing sources (in %) ![]()
2- Loans to firms by size ![]()
- In March 2025, growth in outstanding loans remained stable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and companies of indeterminate size, at +1.2% year-on-year. It fell for intermediate-sized companies (ISE), from +1% to +0.2%, and rose for large companies, from +4.2% to +4.9%.
- The average cost of new bank loans continued to fall, particularly for large firms, dropping 21 basis points (bps) to 3.67% in March. It also fell for ISEs (-11 bps) and for SMEs and companies of indeterminate size (-9 bps).
| Outstanding
amounts (in Bn €) |
Annual growth rate in % | Cost in % (annual interest rate) |
|||||||
| Mar-25 (p) | Mar-24 | Jan- 25 | Feb-25 (r) | Mar-25 (p) | Mar-24 | Jan-25 | Feb-25 (r) | Mar-25 (p) | |
| All firms | 1,376.0 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 4.68 | 4.05 | 3.92 | 3.80 |
| Of which: | |||||||||
| - SME and unspecified size | 567.6 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 4.99 | 3.99 | 3.85 | 3.76 |
| - ISE | 387.9 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 4.26 | 4.16 | 4.05 | 3.94 |
| - Large firms | 207.3 | -2.7 | 2.3 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 4.90 | 3.99 | 3.88 | 3.67 |
Interest rates (all maturities combined) by enterprise size (in %) ![]()
Outstanding amounts of loans to resident enterprises by size (in € Bn) ![]()
3 - Outstanding amounts by sector** (stocks in € Bn, annual growth rate in %) ![]()
- Growth in loans outstanding varied considerably according to business sector. It remained positive for the business consultancy and services sector (+9.9%), real estate (+4%), agriculture (+3.3%), transport and warehousing (+2.6%) and information and communication (+1.7%).
- On the other hand, outstanding loans continued to contract in the trade sector (-3.3%), accommodation and catering (-2.9%), construction (-2.7%), industrial activities (-1.8%) and education, health and social work (-1.7%).
| Drawn credits | Drawn and undrawn credits | |||||||
| Outstanding amounts | Annual growth rate in % | Outstanding amounts | Annual growth rate in % | |||||
| Mar-2025 (p) | Mar-24 | Feb-25 (r) | Mar-2025 (p) | Mar-2025 (p) | Mar-24 | Feb-25 (r) | Mar-25(p) | |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) | 67.9 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 76.8 | 1.3 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Industry (BE) | 164.2 | -4.6 | -2.2 | -1.8 | 261.7 | -0.6 | -1.2 | -2.9 |
| - inc. Manufacturing (C) | 113.8 | -1.9 | -3.2 | -2.3 | 182.2 | 0.9 | -1.3 | -3.2 |
| Construction (FZ) | 69.8 | -2.4 | -3.0 | -2.7 | 105.7 | -5.4 | -1.0 | -0.6 |
| Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) | 181.5 | -1.2 | -2.9 | -3.3 | 252.1 | -0.8 | -2.1 | -2.9 |
| Transportation and storage (H) | 65.3 | 5.1 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 83.4 | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.7 |
| Accommodation and food service activities (I) | 52.5 | 0.6 | -2.9 | -2.9 | 58.3 | 0.0 | -2.5 | -2.3 |
| Information and communication (JZ) | 34.1 | 6.4 | 2.1 | 1.7 | 53.6 | 7.3 | -6.0 | -8.0 |
| Real estate activities (LZ) (*) | 556.8 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 4.0 | 611.4 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| Advisory and Business support activities (MN) | 105.3 | 5.3 | 10.4 | 9.9 | 132.3 | 7.6 | 11.4 | 8.3 |
|
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (PS) |
62.7 | 0.3 | -1.5 | -1.7 | 69.4 | 1.2 | -5.8 | -5.1 |
| Holdings | 19.9 | 1.4 | 21.1 | 20.5 | 24.1 | 2.5 | 25.5 | 21.7 |
4 - Quarterly additional information about loans to NFCs rates (1)
Cost of new loans by purpose ![]()
(en %)
Breakdown of new loans by purpose ![]()
(in % of new business credits excluding overdrafts)
Characteristics of new loans to NFC![]()
| Average rate (en %) | Average maturity (in month) |
Share of loans fixed rate (in %) |
||
| Oct-24 | Jan-25 | Jan-25 | Jan-25 | |
| Overdrats | 5.94 | 5.45 | ||
| Treasury excluding overdrafts | 4.79 | 4.29 | 25 | 20 |
| Equipment | 4.06 | 3.73 | 110 | 82 |
| Real-estate | 4.01 | 3.67 | 196 | 91 |
| Other investment loans | 5.03 | 4.74 | 59 | 99 |
The survey is conducted among a sample of branches and headquarters of banking institutions operating in metropolitan France. It takes into account new loans granted in the first month of each quarter to non-financial corporations. It is based on the effective rate in the narrow sense (TESE), i.e. the interest component of the overall effective rate (TEG).
(1) Following a change in the editorial line of some Stat Info (see the press release available here https://www.banque-france.fr/fr/espace-presse/communiques-bdf/la-banque-de-france-presente-la-refonte-de-ses-stat-info), the quarterly publication on entreprises credit rates is now merged every quarter with the Stat Info Financing of entreprises.
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Updated on the 13th of May 2025