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 2026, companies’ assessments of banks’ willingness to lend – defined as the balance between the proportion of businesses describing banks’ lending practices as accommodating (positive values), and the proportion of firms describing banks’ lending as restrictive (negative values) – deteriorated slightly compared with the previous quarter (–0.7 points) and stood at –15.0 points, in negative territory. Differences are evident across company sizes: the barrier to obtaining credit is higher for smaller companies (fewer than 50 employees) (–17.8 points) than for medium-sized companies (50 to 250 employees: –9.9 points) and large companies (more than 250 employees: –7.8 points).

The survey results show an overall increase in demand for credit (excluding the retail sector), with a figure of 20.4% (long-term average: 20.5%), representing a rise of 1.1 percentage points compared with the previous quarter. In the manufacturing sector, demand for credit remained above average (22.1% of firms reported a need for credit); in the retail sector (17.6%), it rose significantly, whilst demand for credit in the service sectors (19.4% of firms) and in the construction industry (20.0%) remained at average levels despite increases. By company size (excluding the retail sector), 17.6% of smaller companies (fewer than 50 employees) recently reported a need for credit, as did 26.0% of medium-sized companies (50 to 250 employees) and 22.3% of larger companies (more than 250 employees).

Of the companies with credit needs (excluding the retail sector), around 32.8% had to make concessions regarding the amount or the terms (18.8% reported less favourable terms, 6.3% a lower amount, and 7.7% both less favourable terms and a lower amount than expected). This figure is below the average for the past five years (34.4%). Around 38.1% of businesses requiring credit were able to secure it as expected (5-year average: 36.9%). At 29.7%, the proportion of businesses requiring credit that did not receive a loan or had not applied for one was slightly above average (5-year average: 28.8%; around 6.0% of all companies surveyed) because their loan application was rejected by the bank (5.8%), the terms were unacceptable (10.8%) or they had not attempted to secure a loan as they considered it futile (13.1%).