Inflation, the increase in the financial burden and the increase in labor costs as a result of the rise in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI) have cut the margins of small and medium-sized Spanish companies. This is clear from the report prepared by the employers’ association CEPYME, presented this Tuesday at its headquarters in Madrid, which takes stock of the situation that companies with less than 250 employees are going through based on the data for the quarter of 2022. Among its conclusions, The document reflects that the tightening of the conditions for access to credit has stabilized the debt ratio, however, it has not contributed to reducing the financial burden, which has increased above 87% for micro-enterprises and 126% for medium-sized ones in the last year.
The debt ratio refers to the relationship between the total liabilities and the net worth of the companies and the designated process has placed it at 88% of the media throughout 2022. However, small and medium-sized companies present differences in this question. The smaller ones increased their indebtedness in the last two quarters of the year, something that had not happened since 2007, reaching 83.9% in the last four months of 2022, 1.4 points more than in the same period of the previous year. While the medium-sized companies experienced the opposite process, their debt ratio fell to 78.3%, a proportion of 10 percentage points lower than that of 2021. A fact that was remarkable, given that the last time that the small company had a ratio of indebtedness greater than the median was in 2006.
However, the roles are reversed when it comes to paying interest on liabilities. The financial burden shot up 126.8% for medium-sized companies between December 2021 and December 2022, going from 156,300 uros per year for the average company to reaching 354,600. The increase was less in the case of small companies, although not negligible either, the payment of interest on their liabilities went from representing 8,100 euros at the end of 2021 to reaching 15,200 at the end of 2022, an increase of 87.8%, which added to the increase in energy costs or inflation put into question the viability of thousands of companies after the pandemic.
Inflation and rising interest rates
CEPYME denounces that the financial situation of SMEs is far from satisfactory, after experiencing a rise in interest rates of over 3% in the fourth quarter, more than one point compared to the previous quarter, something that has not happened since 1995. In addition, the The businessmen highlight in the report that this is the first time that the 3% level has been exceeded since March 2015, although they understand that the case of 2022 is “more serious” because the rise occurs compared to very low levels, difference from 1995 when it was above 9%. On the other hand, the risk premium paid by these companies to finance themselves fell to record lows, down to 23 basis points, so they deduce that interest rates will continue to grow.
The employers also understand that the number of loans granted in the last four months of 2022 is insufficient, which rises to 46.2 billion euros, a figure 15.4% higher than that of 2021. However, they point out that this data is distorted. due to the impact of inflation, which implies that the bank loans received by SMEs in this period are equal to 14.7% of sales, compared to 2017-2019, when they accounted for 19.8%. Based on this reference, CEPYME calculates that the importation of the loans should have been greater than 15.9 billion euros. In other words, they would have had to be 34% higher to match the funding for the 2017-2019 biennium.
Companies with less than 10 workers are the ones that have suffered the most from the generalized increase in costs, despite the fact that the impact of energy was much less in the last months of the year, which led to the closure of more than 6,000 businesses of this type before December 2022. It is precisely these companies that are most affected by the rise in the SMI to 1,080 euros, given that it represents an increase in their labor costs of 5.8%, compared to 4.2% for the medians. In companies with less than 50 workers, the average gross remuneration has risen to 1,553 euros per month, while that of those with between 50 and 199 employees increases to 1,925 euros per month.
