The credit questions of the WIFO-Konjunkturtest (business cycle survey) allow us to present the assessments and experiences of companies with regard to bank lending. The credit questions are asked quarterly in February, May, August and November.

In May 2025, companies' assessments of banks' willingness to lend (i.e.: the credit hurdle decreased) – defined as the balance of the proportion of companies that describe banks' lending as accommodating (positive values) and the proportion of companies that describe banks' lending as restrictive (negative values) – improved significantly compared to the previous quarter (+7.1 points) but remained in negative territory at –12.3 points. There are differences according to company size: the credit hurdle is higher for smaller companies (less than 50 employees) (–15.1 points) than for medium-sized companies (50 to 250 employees: –6.4 points) and large companies (more than 250 employees: –11.9 points).

At 20.7% (long-term average: 20.9%), the survey results for the aggregate (excluding retail) show virtually unchanged demand for credit (–0.4 percentage points compared to the previous quarter). Demand for credit in the manufacturing sector remained above average (22.6% of companies reported a need for credit), while demand for credit in the services sector (19.7% of companies), the construction industry (18.5%) and the retail sector (14.1%) was average or slightly below average. In terms of company size (excluding retail), 21.2% of smaller companies (less than 50 employees) recently reported a need for credit, 21.0% of medium-sized companies and 19.3% of larger companies (more than 250 employees).

Of the companies with credit requirements (excluding retail), around 30.2% had to cut back on the amount or conditions (15.5% reported worse conditions, 7.5% lower amount and 7.3% worse conditions and lower amount than expected). This figure is below the average of the past five years (31.2%). Around 39.3% of companies with a need for credit were able to obtain it as expected (5-year average: 42.5%). At 29.4%, the proportion of companies with credit requirements that did not receive a loan or did not apply for one was also above average (5-year average: 26.4%; around 6% of all companies surveyed) because the loan application was rejected by the bank (5.6%), the conditions were unacceptable (11.8%) or they did not attempt to obtain a loan due to lack of opportunity (13.1%).