Financing of SME sector in Serbia via bank loans: Crisis and postcrisis trends

Abstract

The SME sector in Serbia is extremely important for the economy of Serbia as it makes a large part of the non-financial sector, employs the most people in Serbia and participates largely in the GVA of Serbia. However, SME sector it is still insufficiently profitable and non-efficient. Bank loans are the dominant external way of financing SME sector in Serbia. The financial crisis, which has started in 2008, has affected the movement of interest rates, the availability of bank loans, bank loan security requests and the level of non-performing loans. First signs of the recovery of SME sector in Serbia have been seen in 2013.