Background and Relevance
Banxico, Mexico’s central bank, recently released data from its survey on the evolution of business financing for the January-March 2025 period. The survey revealed that 86.7% of companies did not utilize new bank loans during this time, with a slight decrease from 87.9% in the previous quarter.
Credit Usage Among Businesses
Despite the overall trend, 13.3% of companies did seek and obtain new bank loans in Q1 2025, up from 12.1% in the previous quarter. However, only 37.4% of the surveyed companies had bank loans by the end of Q1, compared to 36.3% in the preceding quarter.
The proportion of companies with bank loans varies by business size. For companies with 100 or fewer employees, 36.3% had bank loans, while for those with more than 100 employees, the figure was 45.9%.
Reasons for Not Seeking New Loans
Of the 86.7% of companies that did not seek new bank loans, 82.2% simply did not request them. Other reasons included:
- 2.6% were in the process of loan authorization
- 1.0% had their loan requests denied
- 0.9% found the loan terms too expensive
Economic Conditions and Interest Rates as Limiting Factors
According to Banxico’s report, the primary reasons cited by companies for not seeking new loans were the general economic situation (54.6%) and high-interest rates in the credit market.
Other factors mentioned included sales and profitability concerns, collateral requirements, credit access conditions, potential public support, company capitalization, bank willingness to lend, debt repayment difficulties, and the company’s credit history.
Credit Market Access as a Limiting Factor
Despite these challenges, 55.6% of companies stated that current credit market access conditions were not a limiting factor for their business operations.
27.3% considered it a minor limiting factor, while 17.1% saw it as a major constraint.
Primary Sources of Financing
Suppliers remained the primary source of financing for companies, accounting for 62.1% in Q1 2025, up from 60.0% in the previous quarter.
Commercial bank credit followed with 27.3%, while 12.9% reported financing from other companies within the corporate group or parent office.
Key Questions and Answers
- Q: What percentage of companies did not utilize new bank loans in Q1 2025? A: 86.7%
- Q: What was the primary reason cited by companies for not seeking new loans? A: The general economic situation (54.6%) and high-interest rates in the credit market.
- Q: What percentage of companies considered current credit market access conditions a limiting factor? A: 17.1%
- Q: What was the primary source of financing for companies? A: Suppliers (62.1%).
