Credit conditions remain toughDeloitte Belgian CFO Survey - Q3 2009 |
The greater majority of the CFOs believe that short term intrest rates are at low levels. Yet sharply lower market intrest rates do still not appear to be translating into proportionate declines in the cost of corporate credit. The majority of CFOs continue to rate credit as being costly although perceptions of the cost of credit have fallen slightly over the last year.
Most CFOs also report credit remains hard to obtain, although already significantly less than in the first quarter, when the difficulty to obtain bank borrowing was almost universal. A minority of 35% of the CFOs think however that the availability of credit will remain difficult in the longer run as well.
The great majority of CFOs believe that short term rates are low. In our first quarter survey 70% of CFOs reported however that the reduction of base rates did not translate into a lower cost of credit.
The cost of credit has lowerd over the last year, but a majority of CFOs continue to rate credit as being costly. The lower base rates and the lower resulting interbank rates did not translate into proportionate declines in cost to corporate.
Half of the CFOs report that credit remains hard to obtain, although the availability of credit has significantly improved as compared to the first quarter of the year.
CFOs expectations related to the further improvement in the credit conditions have turned somewhat more positive in the third quarter. As of the first half of 2010, credit conditions are expected to improve.
However, 57% of CFOs think that corporations will continue to face tighter lending terms from banks also beyond the end of the recession. Only a minority think the availability of credit will remain difficult in the longer run.
