Italy's main business federation warned on Thursday that companies faced a credit crunch "tsunami" because of the worsening financial outlook, while banks said tighter lending was unavoidable because of higher financing costs.
"The tsunami alarm of a possible tightening of credit for businesses in the next few months due to the increased cost of financing for banks has sounded," Gianpaolo Galli, director general of Confindustria, said at a conference on lending in Rome.
Galli said firms are seeing the first signs of a "credit crunch" but the phenomenon was not yet widespread. "There are signs of worsening here and there," he said.
Giovanni Sabatini, director general of the Association of Italian Banks, said at the same conference: "We have noticed an increase in the cost of financing and the rates remain high. This will inevitably be reflected on financing for companies."
Italy has seen a slump in confidence on the markets, leading to a sharp rise on risk premiums and tensions on the interbank market which have increased financing costs. A credit crunch would have a serious impact for its already weak growth rate.
Lending to Italian households however was up 5.4 percent in July on a 12-month comparison compared to an average 2.3-percent increase in the eurozone.
