Development of the de minimis guarantee programme for SMEs in the transportation sector in Poland. Does COVID-19 matter?
Development of the de minimis guarantee programme for SMEs in the transportation sector in Poland. Does COVID-19 matter?

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to present the functioning of the de minimis guarantee programme for SMEs in the transportation sector in Poland. Moreover, our study assesses the impact of COVID-19 on numbers and values of obtained guarantees by the analysed enterprises. We use data from Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, a state development bank. The research period covers 2013–2020. The government de minimis guarantee programme aims to support entrepreneurship using BGK guarantees to ease banking loan barriers for SMEs in Poland. The study reveals that the value of guarantees granted to SMEs in the transportation sector is continuously growing, while the number of guarantees fluctuates in the analysed period. Micro-enterprises obtain about 50% of the total value of all guarantees. SMEs in the transportation sector primarily use the de minimis guarantee programme to secure revolving working capital loans. We observe significant differences in the number and value of granted guarantees among 16 Polish voivodeships. The t-test analysis confirms that both numbers and values of credit guarantees are significantly greater in the COVID-19 than in the pre-COVID-19 year. Such results may indicate the deteriorating financial situation of the surveyed SMEs, resulting in the need to use de minimis guarantees to successfully borrow financial capital from the bank.

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