The novel coronavirus pandemic has hit the Polish economy, including business activity. The paper aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the credit financing of microenterprises and farmers in Poland. We analyse investment loans and working capital loans, particularly the changes in the number and value of these loans, the number of loan enquiries, and the share of non-performing loans. The research period covers the two-year period, including the pre-COVID-19 subperiod from March 2019 till February 2020 and the COVID-19 subperiod from March 2020 till February 2021. We obtain monthly data from BIK. The BIK Group is the main source of credit and economic information in Poland. The study reveals a significant decrease in the number and value of investment loans and working capital loans during the COVID-19 period compared to the pre-COVID-19 period both in groups of microenterprises and farmers. Surprisingly, despite the difficult time for entrepreneurs, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced the number of loans enquiries. As we expected, the number and value of non-performing loans increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the value of non-performing investment loans in the group of microenterprises increased marginally.Our research can be helpful for decision-makers and credit market participants, including national governments, financial market supervisory institutions, banks, and micro-entrepreneurs, and farmers.

Celem artykułu było przedstawienie funkcjonowania programu gwarancji de minimis dla MŚP z sektora transportowego w Polsce. Ponadto badanie ocenia wpływ COVID-19 na liczbę i wartość uzyskanych gwarancji przez analizowane przedsiębiorstwa. Wykorzystano dane Banku Gospodarstwa Krajowego, państwowego banku rozwoju. Okres badawczy obejmował lata 2013–2020. Rządowy program gwarancji de minimis ma na celu wspieranie przedsiębiorczości korzystającej z gwarancji BGK, w celu złagodzenia barier kredytowych dla MŚP w Polsce. Z badania wynika, że wartość poręczeń udzielanych MŚP z sektora transportowego nieprzerwanie rosła, a liczba poręczeń wahała się w analizowanym okresie. Badane MŚP z sektora transportowego korzystają przede wszystkim z programu gwarancji de minimis, aby zabezpieczyć odnawialne kredyty obrotowe. Mikroprzedsiębiorstwa uzyskały ok. 50% łącznej wartości wszystkich gwarancji. Zaobserwowano znaczne różnice w liczbie i wartości udzielonych gwarancji wśród 16 polskich województw. Analiza testu t potwierdziła, że zarównoliczba, jak i wartość gwarancji kredytowych były znacznie wyższe w okresie COVID 19 (2020) niż w okresie przed COVID-19 (2019). Uzyskane wyniki wskazują na pogarszającą się sytuację finansową badanych MŚP spowodowaną wystąpieniem pandemii COVID-19 skutkującą koniecznością skorzystania z gwarancji de minimis.

Public guarantee programmes aim to improve access to financing for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and support entrepreneurship. The objective of our paper is to present and assess the de minimis guarantee programme for SMEs in the wholesale and retail trade sector in Poland. In detail, we analyze changes in the number and value of credit guarantees from national and regional perspectives. The research period covers the first eight years of the program functioning, i.e., 2013-2020. Data was gathered from Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), a Polish national development bank. The study reveals visible fluctuations in the number and value of de minimis guarantees obtained by the SMEs in the wholesale and retail trade sector. However, in 2019-2020 we observed their substantial growth. SMEs in the analysed sector primarily use the de minimis guarantee programme to secure revolving working capital loans. Micro-enterprises obtain 75% of the total number and 40% of the total value of guarantees. We observe substantial regional differences in the number and value of granted guarantees among 16 Polish voivodeships rooted in the voivodeship size. The t-test analysis confirmed that both numbers and values of credit guarantees A. ZAJĄC, M. WIELECHOWSKI, K. CZECH WyżSza Szkoła GoSpodarki euroreGionalneJ iM. alcide de GaSperi W JózefoWie 276 are significantly greater in 2019-2020, at a 1% significance level. Such results may indicate an increased need for external support for analysed SMEs due to changes in the de minimis guarantee program, stricter bank lending policy and the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study attempts to identify changes in the farm credit market in Poland during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research used the data of the Central Statistical Office and the Credit Information Bureau for the years 2017-2020. In the course of the research, three econometric models were constructed, explaining the number of loans to farms as well as the number of farmers’ credit inquiries, illustrating the interest in external capital of farms during the pandemic. The program Statistica 13.3 was used. An analysis of the normality of the distribution was performed using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The Pearson correlation method was used to establish the existence of a correlation relationship between the variables. In order to construct the predictive models, the correlation calculus and the forward step regression calculus were used. The analysis covered all loans granted on a monthly basis in 2017-2020. In total, in this period, banks granted 245,607 loans to individual farmers and their volume amounted to nearly PLN 24 billion. In the course of the research it was found, inter alia, that the set of explanatory variables in the models may be a premise to introduce improvements in the lending policy of banks servicing agriculture in the form of tightening or liberalizing credit requirements. The research results can also be used by banks to plan future sales targets and interest income from these loans.

The food industry is an important sector of the Polish and EU economies. It is one of the fastest-growing areas of the food economy. It is a section of the economy in which deep structural changes took place. The aim of this study is to indicate changes which took place in the Polish food industry. They are presented in selected years from 1995 to 2016. Also described are the ownership changes that took place during this period. On the empirical side, data from the Statistical Yearbooks of the Central Statistical Office of Industry were used. On this basis was presented the share of food processing in sold production of industry, as well as employment and entities conducting business activity in the food processing department.