MADRID — Spain’s small and medium-sized exporters are struggling to compete with European rivals due to high borrowing costs, as fallout from the country’s banking crisis hurts one of the few bright spots in a contracting economy.
From ceramic tile makers to chemicals producers and conveyor belt manufacturers, they say credit is too expensive or simply unavailable, even though exporters appear at first sight to be healthy.
Since the crisis year of 2008, Spanish exports have grown faster than those of any other euro zone country except Estonia, according to banking group BBVA. However, that growth is now slowing sharply, partly as some foreign markets have joined Spain in slipping back into recession.
On top of this, small and medium-sized exporters say they have become indirect victims of a property market crash which has made the banks highly cautious lenders.
“Nobody trusts anybody and you can’t even get a 30,000 euro credit line approved,” said Monica Garcia del Pino, director of ceramic tile maker Ceramica de San Gines in the central Spanish province of Toledo.
Even when firms persuade the banks to extend credit, the cost is high. Spanish firms pay 5.62 percent for a three-year loan of less than 250,000 euros ($318,500), according to Eurostat data.
This is modestly higher than the euro zone average of 5.25 percent. But competitors in Spain’s heavyweight industrial rivals enjoy significantly lower financing costs, with German firms paying 4.4 percent and those in France just 3.23 percent. — Reuters