Financing of entreprises - 2025-08
Published on the 8th of October 2025
statistics
The fall in the cost of business credit continued, with an average rate of 3.39% in August
- In August 2025, year-on-year growth in financing granted to non-financial corporations (NFCs) stood at 2.2% (after 2.4% in July). Financing through debt securities grew at the same pace as the previous month (2.0% year-on-year, as in July), but growth in bank loans declined slightly (2.4% after 2.6% in July), due to the intensified decline in cash loans (-3.2%, after -2.2% in July), while outstanding investment loans continued to grow (3.9% year-on-year in August, July, and June).
- The interest rate on new financing for NFCs decreased in August (3.36%, after 3.47% in July) due to the fall in the average cost of new bank loans (3.39%, after 3.57% in July), which returned to a level close to that observed at the end of 2022, while the average rate on new debt securities issued remained almost stable (3.30%, after 3.28% in July).
1 - Overview of NFCs : Outstanding amounts and flows in €Bn, annual growth rate and cost in %
(non-seasonally adjusted) ![]()
| Aug-2025 (p) | Annual growth rate | Cost (annual Interest rate) | |||||||||
| Outstanding
amounts |
Transactions
(cumulative over 12 month) |
New business
(cumulative over 12 month) |
Aug-2024 | June-2025 | July-2025 (r) | Aug-2025 (p) | Aug-2024 | June-2025 | July-2025 (r) | Aug-2025 (p) | |
| NFC's global financing | 2,105.3 | 45.9 | 685.8 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 4.16 | 3.49 | 3.47 | 3.36 |
| Loans | 1,387.5 | 32.1 | 336.9 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 4.51 | 3.57 | 3.57 | 3.39 |
| Investment | 1,013.3 | 3.1 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 3.9 | ||||||
| equipment | 634.1 | 2.8 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.0 | ||||||
| real-estate | 379.2 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 | ||||||
| Cash | 296.5 | -2.8 | -3.8 | -2.2 | -3.2 | ||||||
| Other lending | 77.6 | 8.6 | 4.5 | 4.8 | 5.1 | ||||||
| Loans up to €1 million | 119.1 | 4.28 | 3.75 | 3.73 | 3.65 | ||||||
| Loans over €1 million | 217.9 | 4.67 | 3.47 | 3.50 | 3.21 | ||||||
| Securities other than shares | 717.7 | 13.9 | 348.9 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 3.48 | 3.34 | 3.28 | 3.30 |
(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- Bank loans by size of NFC ![]()
- The 12-month growth in outstanding loans at the end of August 2025 declined. It stood at 1.2% for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and companies of unspecified size, and at 1.0% for intermediate-sized enterprises (ISEs), a very slight decline compared to the previous month. For large firms (LEs), it was down more sharply (4.4% compared to 5.5% at the end of July).
- The cost of new financing fell for all company sizes: it stood at 3.39% on average for SMEs and companies of unspecified size (compared to 3.52% in July), 3.59% for intermediate-sized enterprises (ISEs) (3.75% in July), and 3.02% for LEs (3.37% in July).
| Outstanding
amounts (in €Bn) |
Annual growth rate in % | Cost in %
(annual interest rate) |
|||||||
| Aug-2025 (p) | Aug-2024 | June-2025 | July-2025 (r) | Aug-2025 (p) | Aug-2024 | June-2025 | July-2025 (r) | Aug-2025 (p) | |
| - SME and unspecified size | 539.4 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 4.64 | 3.53 | 3.52 | 3.39 |
| - ISE | 386.8 | 3.6 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 4.45 | 3.75 | 3.75 | 3.59 |
| - Large firms | 222.4 | 1.3 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 4.4 | 4.27 | 3.33 | 3.37 | 3.02 |
(r): revised data ; (p): provisional data
Interest rates (all maturities combined) by enterprise size (in %)![]()
Outstanding amounts of loans to resident enterprises by size (in €Bn) ![]()
3 - Bank loans by sector ** (stocks in €Bn, annual growth rate in %)![]()
- Growth in outstanding loans remained mixed across business sectors. It remained positive for the advisory and business support activities (+10.0%), real estate activities (+3.6%), transportation and storage (+3.3%), agriculture, forestry and fishing (+2.4%), and industry (+0.2%).
- However, outstanding loans continued to decline in the wholesale and retail trade (-3.5%), education, human health and social work services (-3.3%), construction (-2.9%), information and communications (-2.0%), accommodation and food services sectors (-0.1%).
| Drawn credits | Drawn and undrawn credits | |||||||
| Outstanding amounts | Outstanding year-on-
year growth in % |
Outstanding amounts | Outstanding year-on-
year growth in % |
|||||
| Aug-2025 (p) | Aug-2024 | July-2025 (r) | Août-2025 (p) | Aug-2025 (p) | Aug-2024 | July-2025 (r) | Aug-2025 (p) | |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) | 68.8 | 3.2 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 77.9 | 1.6 | 3.4 | 3.3 |
| Industry (BE) | 166.9 | -2.0 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 261.6 | 0.5 | -2.1 | -0.2 |
| - inc. Manufacturing (C) | 114.1 | -1.4 | -0.6 | -1.2 | 178.2 | 1.2 | -3.2 | -1.0 |
| Construction (FZ) | 70.0 | -1.3 | -3.3 | -2.9 | 105.6 | -2.1 | -2.2 | -2.0 |
| Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) | 179.2 | -1.9 | -3.4 | -3.5 | 256.8 | -1.1 | -1.5 | -1.3 |
| Transportation and storage (H) | 66.8 | 7.3 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 87.8 | 6.5 | 5.5 | 5.4 |
| Accommodation and food service activities (I) | 53.7 | -0.2 | -0.1 | -0.1 | 59.3 | -0.5 | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| Information and communication (JZ) | 34.1 | 6.4 | -2.6 | -2.0 | 57.5 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Real estate activities (LZ) (*) | 561.6 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 618.3 | 2.8 | 3.4 | 3.7 |
| Advisory and Business support activities (MN) | 110.6 | 8.2 | 11.1 | 10.0 | 138.1 | 7.0 | 8.2 | 8.0 |
|
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (PS) |
61.6 | -0.9 | -1.3 | -3.3 | 69.0 | 0.1 | -4.2 | -6.0 |
| Holdings | 17.1 | 2.3 | 21.9 | 15.4 | 20.3 | 2.2 | 21.3 | 16.9 |
Download the PDF version of the document
EN_Stat_Info_Financing_of_firms_202508.pdf
Updated on the 7th of October 2025