Publication of corporate finance in the euro area structural issues report

Today the European Central Bank (ECB) publishes the ECB’s Structural issues Report, which this year deals with “Corporate Finance in the euro area”.

This is an annual ECB publication, which will be formally presented to the European Parliament during today’s hearing of the ECB’s President, Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet, at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the Parliament. Each year the report will be prepared under the aegis of the ECB’s Governing Council, which would identify a topic on structural aspects of the euro area economy relevant for monetary policy. The report will analyse this topic from a euro area and cross-country perspective, based on input from the staff of the ECB and of the national central banks (NCBs) of the euro area.

The aim of this year’s report of this year is to analyse the main features of the functioning of the market for corporate finance in the euro area, including the specifics of the national markets and the conditions applicable to the borrowers. Given the great interest in the issue of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to finance, the report also analyses how financing patterns differ across large, medium and small enterprises. Finally, the report discusses the recent trends observed in the corporate finance landscape of the euro area over the past few years and how they have influenced the availability of external finance for firms.

If you would like to receive a hard copy of this report, please contact the ECB’s Press and Information Division at the address provided below. Alternatively, you can download the full report from the ECB’s website (http://www.ecb.europa.eu).