HKMA Survey: SMEs Report Stable Credit Conditions in Q3 2025

Survey on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises' Credit Conditions for third quarter 2025

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published today (November 7) the results of the Survey on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)' Credit Conditions for the third quarter of 2025. According to the survey, SMEs' credit conditions remained broadly stable.

Regarding SMEs' perception of banks' credit approval stance relative to six months ago, excluding respondents who answered "no idea/don't know", 59 per cent perceived a "similar" or "easier" credit approval stance in the third quarter of 2025, down from 65per cent in the previous quarter (Chart 1in the Annex). 41per cent perceived a "more difficult" credit approval stance, compared to 35per cent in the previous quarter. The perception of a more difficult credit approval stance may not necessarily reflect actual difficulties faced by SMEs in obtaining bank credit as the perception could be affected by a number of factors, such as media/news reports, business conditions and opinions of relatives and friends.

Among respondents with existing credit lines, 3 per cent reported a "tighter" banks' stance, up from 1 per cent in the previous quarter (Chart 2in the Annex). In this survey, a tighter stance on existing credit lines denotes a range of possible measures or arrangements, such as reducing unused and used credit lines, raising the interest rate, imposing additional collateral requirements, or shortening loan tenor. Therefore, respondents' indication of banks' stance on existing credit lines may not directly reflect banks' supply of credit to SMEs.

The survey also gauged the results of new credit applications from SMEs. 2 per cent of the respondents reported that they had applied for new bank credit during the third quarter of 2025. Among the respondents who had already known their application outcomes, 72per cent reported fully or partially successful applications, up from 67per cent in the previous quarter (Chart 3in the Annex).

Owing to small sample sizes of SMEs with existing credit lines (15per cent of surveyed SMEs) and with new credit applications (2 per cent of surveyed SMEs) during the quarter, the results could be prone to large fluctuations, and hence should be interpreted with care.

About Survey on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises' Credit Conditions

In light of the importance of SMEs to the Hong Kong economy and concerns about potential funding difficulties facing SMEs over the past few years, the HKMA has appointed the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to carry out this survey, starting from the third quarter of 2016. This survey is conducted on a quarterly basis, covering about 2 500 SMEs from different economic sectors each time. The results of this survey can help monitor the development of SMEs' access to bank credit from a demand-side perspective.

The results of this survey should be interpreted with caution. Similar to other opinion surveys, views collected in this survey may be affected by changes in sentiment due to idiosyncratic events that occurred over the survey period, which can make the results prone to fluctuations. Readers are advised to interpret the results together with other economic and financial information. In addition, views collected are limited to the expected direction of inter-quarter changes (e.g. "tighter", "no change" or "easier") without providing information about the magnitude of these changes.

Detailed tables and technical information of this survey are published on the website of the HKPC (smecc.hkpc.org).

Source: AI-found images

Speech by CE at Fourth Edition of Women Power Forum

Following is the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, at the Fourth Edition of Women Power Forum today (April 1):

Ladies and gentlemen, I am very pleased to join you, today, for the fourth Women Power Forum, delighted to be here among so many esteemed female leaders and distinguished guests.

They say women hold up half the sky, and in today's Hong Kong, that is exactly what we see.

In the private sector, a growing number of listed companies now have a good number of female directors, and women's participation in corporate leadership continues to rise. In the professional world, more than half of our accountants and lawyers are women. And within the Government, eight out of 15 directors of bureaux, along with the Director of the Chief Executive's Office, are women. Forty-nine per cent of our civilian civil servants are also women.

In short, women are both the leaders and the backbone of our economy and our government. Hong Kong is clearly far better because of it, because of the women of Hong Kong. Very proud of you all.

Hong Kong's achievements stand as a powerful testament to our unwavering commitment to women's development and gender equality.

We champion these goals because we recognise a fundamental truth: that women's progress is not just a women's issue; it is a shared responsibility, one that benefits everyone. In Hong Kong and around the world.

That's why the theme of this year's Women Power Forum is "Women Across Nations: Unite to Prosper." Working together, we can continue to drive progress, locally, regionally and globally.

I wish you all a rewarding Forum and, for those of you here from outside Hong Kong, an enjoyable stay in the world's rising East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange. Thank you.

Source: AI-found images