By Marcello Condemi
From a financial point of view, 2023 cannot be counted among the most favourable years, since
Access to credit was difficult and in many cases prohibitive for households and businesses. The
causes of this are to be found in particular in the significant increase in interest rates
by the ECB as well as in the increased risk perception of traders on the
economic prospects of the country. The picture of what happened was summarised in a
document entitled “Demand and (...) supply of credit at territorial level” published by the
Bank of Italy on 28 December us, containing the results of the Regional bank lending survey,
conducted for the first half of 2023 on a sample of 243 banks. From the survey
emerges in particular i) a contraction in the demand for credit by companies, which has
affected all sectors, with the exception of the construction and manufacturing sectors in the
mezzogiorno, and also a tightening of the supply of credit to the same companies; ii) a further
weakening of the demand for home loans by households,
aggravated by the worsening of the conditions applied in terms of loan-to-value ratio, scoring
minimum for access to credit and the extent of guarantees to support loans; iii) and, finally, a
increase in credit applications for consumer purposes. This resulted, as far as the
companies, a reduced availability of financial resources, resulting in a contraction of
financing of investments and working capital coverage. The decrease in
financial resources, as far as households are concerned, has instead led to a greater, widespread
difficulties in access to credit, with borrowing conditions becoming more restrictive especially
in the Centre and in the South, with severe restrictions not only on mortgages, but also in terms of
financial support for all other family needs, all to be attributed not only to the rising
rates, to an increase in selection criteria. The impact on the investment front is different, where it is
there was a decrease in bank deposits by households, mainly related to
to the low deposit rates recognised by intermediaries, while they increased everywhere,
showing a more pronounced increase in the south, applications for bank bonds.
Also on the investment front, a significant increase in the
demand for government bonds by households and also, as a result of the recovery of
stock market quotations, demand for equities, particularly in the North West, and
of asset management products (UCITS units), while demand for insurance policies has
confirmed declining.
Published in the newspaper “Il Tempo” on 13 January 2024
