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 August 2025, companies' assessments of banks' willingness to lend – 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) – remained almost unchanged compared to the previous quarter (–0.2 points) and stayed in negative territory at –12.5 points. There are differences according to company size: the credit hurdle is higher for smaller companies (less than 50 employees) (–16.8 points) than for medium-sized companies (50 to 250 employees: –2.5 points) and large companies (more than 250 employees: –7.3 points).

At 21.0% (long-term average: 20.8%), the survey results show little change in demand for credit in the aggregate (excluding retail) (+0.5 percentage points compared to the previous quarter). Demand for credit remained above average in the manufacturing sector (21.8% of companies reported a need for credit) and rose in the retail sector (22.5%), while demand for credit in the services sector (20.7% of companies) and the construction industry (19.0%) 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, 22.3% of medium-sized companies and 20.0% of larger companies (more than 250 employees).

Of the companies with credit requirements (excluding retail), around 28.8% had to cut back on the amount or conditions (14.5% reported worse conditions, 5.9% lower amount and 8.4% worse conditions and lower amount than expected). This figure is below the average of the past five years (32.2%). Around 41.8% of companies with a need for credit were able to obtain it as expected (5-year average: 40.5%). At 29.6%, 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: 27.3%; around 6.2% of all companies surveyed) because the loan application was rejected by the bank (4.6%), the conditions were unacceptable (10.5%) or they did not attempt to obtain a loan due to lack of opportunity (14.4%).