The access to finance by SMEs in Turkey and the EU: A comparative study

Access to finance is one of the major factors in the growth of Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs); which comprise 99% of companies in Turkey and the EU and have a large impact on GDP and unemployment. Therefore, this study aims to compare status and changes in the access to finance of SMEs in Turkey and the EU. Additionally, their access to finance is also evaluated according to their associate status, location, business area, exports, liquid assets, and establishment time. In developing the questionnaire used in this survey, some of the questions from the Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE 2017) conducted in October 2017 on the EU SMEs, were modified. The questionnaire was sent to SMEs in Turkey through KOSGEB (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development and Support Agency (Küçük ve Orta Ölçekli İşletmeleri Geliştirme ve Destekleme İdaresi Başkanlığı)) via e-mail. The responses obtained were compared with the responses from SAFE 2017 using analyses such as chi-square and regression (SPSS). Some key findings are: the second biggest issue for SMEs in Turkey is the access to finance, while this issue is the least important for SMEs in the EU; the increase in availability of financial sources for SMEs in the EU is much larger and they use them mostly for new investments, while SMEs in Turkey use them mostly for inventories; expenses for SMEs in Turkey such as labor and raw material cost increased more, which probably led to a decrease in profit and an increase in debts.