One for all: only one in 10 companies will be able to take a soft loan
Only every 10th small and medium-sized enterprise will be able to get a soft loan, Izvestia has found out. In March, the support program will finally be restarted, but the criteria for admission to it will be narrowed: previously, almost any company could get a reduced rate, and now - only those working in five areas selected by the authorities. These include manufacturing, logistics, tourism, science and IT. This is necessary to support the highest-priority industries and build a "supply-side economy". But how the remaining 90% of small companies can survive in conditions of high key - in the material of "Izvestia".
Renewed program of preferential lending to SMEs in 2025-2030
The authorities are restarting the program of preferential business lending in the new six-year national project "Efficient and Competitive Economy". It is expected to be up and running by March 5. Now the Ministry of Economic Development is selecting credit organizations that will implement this measure. The program will work as soon as the list of banks is approved, the press service of the ministry told Izvestia.
Before that, for six years Russia had a broad preferential program ("1764"), under which SMEs from almost any sphere could get a loan at the rate of "key minus 8.75% for small and 7.75% for medium-sized enterprises". However, its limits were exhausted in the summer of 2024. In the new cycle of national projects, the authorities promised to restart credit support for business.
However, the modified mechanism (the program "1764 + PSC", where PSC - not the full cost of the loan, and the program to stimulate lending) will apply only to a few industries, including manufacturing, transportation and storage, tourism, as well as in the field of information technology and science and technology, reported in the Ministry of Economic Development. Under the updated program, companies will be able to get a loan at the Central Bank rate minus 3.5%. That is, today it would be 17.5% with average rates for SMEs without benefits of more than 30% (according to December 2024).
In the five industries listed above, 743 thousand small and medium-sized businesses are registered, while there are about 6.6 million such companies operating in Russia, according to calculations made by the SME Corporation at the request of Izvestia. That is, now the support program will cover only 11% of the entire sector.
At the same time, not only the coverage of SMEs will be reduced, but also the volume of support itself - up to 100 billion rubles annually, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Tatyana Ilyushnikova said in an interview with Izvestia. For comparison, thanks to the preferential loan program "1764" for six years of the national project to support SMEs (2019-2024) was provided loans for almost 4.7 trillion rubles.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development, previously, concessional loans to SMEs were issued by 48 financial organizations. Novikombank, Dom.RF, PSB, VTB and Sovcombank said they plan to participate in the selection. The credit institutions noted that this program is very much in demand.
Why preferential lending was limited
The authorities are gradually curtailing preferential lending to small businesses - this worries the "Support of Russia", said "Izvestia" president of the association Alexander Kalinin. A significant reduction in the amount of money from 2025 to 100 billion rubles annually is due to the fact that previously the most frequent users of loans were entrepreneurs from the sphere of trade and construction, said the director of the Higher School of Economics and Business of Plekhanov Russian Economic University Dmitry Zavyalov.
According to him, the support of the service sector is important - it is the most often interested in it for start-up businessmen. However, now the government has other priorities - the economy needs comprehensive development of industrial entrepreneurship, manufacturing, enterprises that create high added value, Dmitry Zavyalov believes.
- President Vladimir Putin has set a goal by 2030 - to ensure real growth of income per employee of SMEs in 1.2 times higher than GDP growth. In order to achieve this goal, the focus will be on several strategic objectives," reminded Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation.
Among them is to ensure the growth of SME contribution to the supply economy by supporting the most important industries, he emphasized.
- All support programs will be prioritized into the most important areas of the so-called "supply economy". Now it is important to create new goods and services, new markets to ensure that supply grows at a rate higher than demand. This will allow for faster import substitution and lower prices," emphasized Stepan Zemtsov, Director of the Center of Economic Geography and Regionalistics of the Presidential Academy.
Business problems due to high key
At the same time, the curtailment of preferential lending entails big problems for business. The high key rate is creating special difficulties now. On February 14, the Central Bank kept it for the second time in a row at 21%, the next meeting is scheduled for March 21.
Explaining the decision to keep the rate the same, the head of the regulator Elvira Nabiullina said at a press conference that the cooling of lending covers all segments of the market. As "Izvestia" wrote earlier, the volume of loans to resident legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in rubles fell 1.5 times in November 2024 - to Br5.8 trillion. This is the largest reduction for the entire time of statistics since 2019 - organizations can not afford to borrow money for investment and development.
Thus, small companies, which should help the economy to overcome sanctions and engage in import substitution, can not realize their task. As a result, in an attempt to curb inflation, the authorities are limiting opportunities to increase business turnover.
According to Natalia Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global, the only way to maintain business financing now is to encourage companies to enter the securities market. For example, through private offerings of shares by closed subscription - this way, more funds can be raised at a lower cost.
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