Financing SMEs towards Competitiveness

As France and most European economies experience an indecisive recover early in 2014, questions arise about what will pull tomorrow’s growth. More than ever, competitiveness, innovation and international strategies of firms have been identified as the main issues to avoid the decline of potential growth, involving a quick recovery of investment expenditures. This implies the availability of a continuum of financing for French SMEs so that they can grow and gain the critical size to carry tomorrow’s competitiveness, in a context where their profit margins are at low levels. Since the beginning of the crisis, financing conditions, especially banking conditions, have not appeared to be too restricting for French SMEs. But remaining persistent market failures still need to be addressed to avoid the economic recovery being hampered. There lies the role of Bpifrance, by driving private actors of financing, to ensure SMEs that they will get sufficient resources to carry on their innovative, international and growth strategies.