The major increase was in short-term debt. This marks the second time since 1991 that short-term debt was higher than trade accounts payable. Figure 5 presents the sources of short-term debt over the past five years. Together, these two sources provide nearly 75 percent of the total outside funding for cooperatives. Banks for cooperatives supplied more than 55 percent of the total amount of short-term debt to the Top 100 in 1995.
Commercial banks are the next largest supplier of funds to cooperatives.
In 1991, only 7 percent of total short-term loans were provided by commercial banks. By 1995 they were providing 19 percent of short-term loans. Other sources of short-term debt have become less relevant for the Top 100. However, this remains 7 percent of total short-term debt. Other sources of funds, including the government, made up only around 2 percent of total short-term debt.