August 2022
Survey of Corporate Attitudes towards Covid-19 related loans (August 2022)
12.2% of corporate borrowers, “anxiety about repayment”
— 3.2 points up in half a year, and concerns about increasing difficulty to continue business —
Introduction
The Covid-19 related loan program with preferential interest rate and repayment terms started by the government and private financial institutions in May 2020, which supported corporate cash management under the ongoing Covid-19 situation. In particular, the effectively interest-free and unsecured loans (zero-zero loans) will end at the end of September, and loan repayments are getting into full swing.
Teikoku Databank has therefore conducted a survey on the current situation and repayment outlook of Covid-19 related loans. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the August 2022 TDB Trends Research.
*Survey period: August 18, 2022 – August 31, 2022; Companies Surveyed: 26,277; Valid Responses: 11,935 (Response Rate: 45.4%).
*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey HP. (http://www.tdb-di.com).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 Companies that are “currently borrowing money” from the Covid-19 related loan program stood at 49.2%.
45.8% of companies are “not borrowing money” from the Covid-19 related loan program. On the other hand, the percentage of those “currently borrowing money” reached nearly half at 49.2%. By size, the percentage of those “currently borrowing money” stood at 57.7% among “Micro Firms”, and 54.1% among “Small to Medium-sized Firms”, which are respectively 34.3 and 30.7 points greater than the percentage among “Large Firms” (23.4%). The percentage of those that are currently borrowing money in the four lines of business such as “Furniture”, “Lodging, Hotels”, and “Restaurants” surpassed 70%. - 2 Over 40% of corporate borrowers have a repayment rate of “less than 30%”.
According to the repayment status as of August, only 13.3% of companies have repaid “more than 50%” of loans. Two out of three companies have started repayment, but 42.3% of them repaid “less than 30%”, and 32.6% of them “have not yet repaid or will start repayment”. Repayment will go into full swing from now on. - 3 12.2% of corporate borrowers experience “anxiety about repayment”, up 3.2 points from that in February.
64.8% of companies have already started repayment. Approximately 20% of companies will start repayment in the next year.
With respect to the repayment outlook, 85.5% of companies say they “can repay in full as per loan terms”. On the other hand, 12.2% of them are experiencing anxiety about repayment, such as “being likely to delay repayment” (5.2%), “being difficult to repay unless the terms are relaxed, such as reducing or waiving the interest rate, and/or reducing or deferring repayment” (4.8%), “being able to continue business although one has no outlook on repayment” (1.1%) or “having no outlook on repayment and therefore business may not be able to continue” (1.0%). The percentage of companies that feel anxious about repayment went up 3.2 points from that in February.