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 February 2026, companies' assessments of banks' willingness to lend – defined as the balance of the proportion of companies that describe banks' lending as accommodative (positive values) and the proportion of companies that describe banks' lending as restrictive (negative values) – deteriorated compared with the previous quarter (–3.0 points) and were in negative territory at –14.6 points. There are differences depending on company size: the credit hurdle is higher for smaller companies (fewer than 50 employees) (–17.0 points) than for medium-sized companies (50 to 250 employees: –7.4 points) and large companies (more than 250 employees: –8.7 points).

The survey results show a slight decline in credit demand (–0.5 percentage points compared with the previous quarter) with a value of 20.0% (long-term average: 20.8%) in aggregate (excluding retail). In manufacturing, credit demand remained above average (23.0% of companies reported credit demand), while in retail (20.6%) it remained stable and in the service sectors (19.0% of companies) and construction (16.8%) it was average or slightly below average. By company size (excluding retail), 19.8% of smaller companies (fewer than 50 employees) reported a need for credit, as did 21.6% of medium-sized companies (50 to 250 employees) and larger companies (more than 250 employees).

Of the companies with credit needs (excluding retail), around 36.3% had to make concessions in terms of the amount or conditions (17.1% reported worse conditions, 11.4% lower amounts and 7.8% worse conditions and lower amounts than expected). This figure is slightly above the average for the past five years (33.3%). Around 38.0% of companies requiring credit were able to obtain it as expected (5-year average: 38.7%). The proportion of companies requiring credit that did not receive credit or did not apply for it was slightly below average at 26.4% (5-year average: 28.0%; around 5.3% of all companies surveyed) was slightly below average because their loan application was rejected by the bank (4.7%), the terms were unacceptable (10.5%) or they had not attempted to obtain a loan because they had no chance of success (11.2%).