The group of entities of the Argentine financial system has approved loans for $45,168.3 million, of which $29,545 million were disbursed, with the special line of credit for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) at a maximum annual interest rate of 24% launched by the BCRA.
Of these disbursements, $1,979 million went to health service provider companies, reached by the regulations beyond their size and within the framework of the national policy for the prevention of COVID-19.
The complete line of MSME financing approved by the BCRA is at least 220 billion pesos.
The credits were granted from the entry into force of the line on March 20 and until April 7.
The Argentine Guarantee Fund (FOGAR) granted guarantees for financial institutions to provide new loans for $ 34,983 million.
Financing to MSMEs was granted at a maximum rate of 24%, which implies a substantial reduction in the cost of loans to which this important productive segment had access.
The stock of commercial loans to the private sector increased since the announcement of social distancing measures on March 19 by $66.584 billion. The variation of the average balance compared to the same period of the previous month reached 17.5%, which represents a record figure.
More generally, in the financing to companies as a whole, there is a significant drop in the interest rate of commercial lines. The average interest rate on document lines stood at 29.9% on April 7, registering a drop of 8.2pp. from March 19. In the case of advances, the drop was 4.8pp. for the total, and 12pp. in the case of advances of more than $ 10 million, whose average interest rate was 27.7%.
