Evidence of the effects of ECB action

Across the euro area access to finance is no longer a pressing problem for SMEs. A bi-annual survey of euro-area enterprises' access to finance conducted by the ECB from October 2014 to March 2015 found that 'Finding customers' remained the dominant concern for euro-area SMEs, 26% of which cited this issue as the biggest problem, up from 20% in the previous survey. 'Finance' was considered the least important concern (11%, down from 13%), after 'Availability of skilled labour' (14%), 'Cost of production' (14%), 'Competition' (14%) and 'Regulation' (13%), notes Standard Chartered.

Difficulty in finding customers is a sign of weak economic demand. Mario Draghi has repeatedly said that governments with "fiscal space" should use it to increase aggregate demand. The effects of the ECB's actions are also visible in money supply and credit data. M3 money supply rose 5.4% y/y in April, the fastest pace since 2009. Credit data for both corporates and households is stronger. After almost three years of negative corporate credit growth, loans to non-financial corporations declined only 0.1% y/y in April and will likely move into positive territory in May, according to Standard Chartered. Loans to households are also increasing at their fastest rate since 2012.