– 35 percent of smes ( 8 – 10 million ) have access to credit. hence, the key challenge is to support banks in extending credit facilities to smes who have a deposit / checking account, but do not yet have access to credit. risk - sharing facilities, coupled with the introduction of best practice sme lending approaches are key interventions that can help banks provide credit to smes. these interventions need to accompany enhancements to the enabling environment for sme lending such as credit bureaus, collaterals and insolvency regimes. 25. in addition to loan financing, smes have the option of collaborating with venture capital investors. other significant forms of sme financing include leasing, trade credit and fiscal incentives in the form of tax breaks. access to finance is essential for improving sme competitiveness, as smes have to invest in new technologies, skills and innovation. issues pertaining to access to finance cannot be resolved by implementing financing schemes or programs in a vacuum. it is also noteworthy that efforts to resolve access to finance issues are not solely the responsibility of governments. smes also need to take initiative in this direction by implementing sound business practices and continuously investing in good internal management systems : in accounting, planning, financial, operations and human resource management. in the indian context, in spite of various measures taken by the rbi and the government, availability of credit to smes continues to remain a major issue in the development of the sme sector in the country. ( i ) impact of the global financial crisis on smes 26. the problem of access to finance faced by smes has been strongly exacerbated by the global financial crisis as smes and entrepreneurs have suffered a double shock : a drastic drop in demand for goods and services and a tightening in credit terms, which have severely affected their cash flows. governments have responded generally by three types of bis central bankers ’ speeches measures aimed at : i ) supporting sales and preventing depletion of smes ’ working capital ; ii ) enhancing sme ’ s access to liquidity ; iii ) helping smes maintain their investment level. the euro zone debt crisis has also impacted smes adversely. however, in the indian context, the sharp depreciation of the rupee against the us dollar in recent months has made sme exports more attractive, which should, to some extent, help in nullifying the adverse impact of the sharp fall in external demand. in these difficult times on the export front, it is imperative for

as you know, people in the uk voted to leave the eu in a referendum back in june 2016, so this risk has indeed been with us for some time now. and the recent course of events has increased the uncertainty still further. the second risk these past twelve months concerns the trade conflict between the united states and china. developments seem to have subdued export orders abroad. and recently, growth looks to have slowed in china, which has otherwise provided traction for global growth over a long period. the third risk concerns italian fiscal policy. the discussion between the eu and the italian government about the italian budget has periodically created unease on the financial markets, even though the most recent course of events is providing some breathing space. as regards the domestic economy, the riksbank has long since warned about developments on the swedish housing market, which is the most important domestic factor that could trigger poorer economic development than in our forecast. after having risen sharply over a long period of time, housing prices started to fall quite rapidly last autumn. during the course of 2018, prices have recovered slightly, and our forecast is for them to continue to rise at a modest rate in the coming years. but i think that the situation on the swedish housing market is still very uncertain. weaker developments than in our forecast pose a significant risk to the swedish economy. those components of domestic demand that would be negatively affected first of all would be housing investment and household consumption. but as i am here at the swedish property federation today, i would also like to mention that the weaker developments on the housing market since last autumn have not escaped housing developers. you can read more about this in an article in our financial stability report, published in november. 16 an important conclusion we can draw from developments in recent years is that housing developers have burdened households with substantial risks during the building process. in see “ the new production of housing and financial stability ”, article in financial stability report 2018 : 2. 12 the prevailing market situation, these risks have come to the fore, causing households ’ interest to wane, especially when move - in dates to new homes are far - off in the future. this will require modified business models in order to rekindle the interest of prospective house - buyers in newly built homes. my assessment is also that newly built homes are currently far too expensive for many groups. cheaper new builds and better turnover in the housing stock could help untangle this knot. there are of course many uncertainty factors not only surrounding future economic developments,