Inna Lopashchuk

The development of Ukraine’s credit market occurs under periodic economic crises. Available destructive processes inhibit the development of credit relations, negatively affecting the lending of economic entities and restraining the development of the national economy. This study aims to highlight the basic transformations in the development of the credit market of Ukraine, which are formed in macroeconomic instability. The economic development trends in Ukraine were assessed using classical statistical methods. The correlation regression analysis was used to analyze the influence of macroeconomic parameters (exchange rate, average salary, and cost of loans) on the volume of bank lending. The results show that the national economy of Ukraine during 2005–2021 developed in the conditions of periodic macroeconomic instability, and the pre-crisis (an indicator of 2013) parameters of bank lending volumes have not restored within the credit market. The paper stresses the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: in 2020, the volume of bank lending decreased by 10.38 billion USD. Moreover, the econometric analysis of the influence of specific macroeconomic parameters (exchange rate, average salary, and cost of loans) on the development of bank lending in Ukraine demonstrated that the stability of the national currency exerts the greatest influence on the lending processes of economic entities in Ukraine. Its provision in the long term allows the creation of favorable conditions for the credit market functioning after the shock periods.

Acknowledgment
This study is conducted within the framework of the scientific project “Transformation of the households’ behavior in the financial services market in the context of digitalization” with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

SMEs are the main drivers of economic development. As the debt crisis and coronavirus crisis show, despite their importance, they are extremely sensitive to economic downturns. Therefore, SMEs need to be supported through various tools. The paper is aimed at evaluating the SMEs’ bank and governmental support in the northern and southern EU countries in two crisis periods and assessing the financial state of SMEs on the eve of coronacrisis using micro-level data.
It was proved that bank loans and credit lines remain the main sources of SMEs’ financing. After the debt crisis, banks are becoming more loyal to SMEs.
It was proved that SMEs from the northern EU countries suffered less from the previous crisis and therefore started their recovery earlier than the southern ones in terms of profitability, liquidity and debt burden. In addition, it was shown that both groups on the eve of the new turbulence period were in better financial state compared to the previous debt crisis.
The southern EU countries suffered more from both crises. At the same time, due to effective governmental support and bank loyalty, their SMEs entered the coronacrisis at the same level of financial stability as the northern ones. Since the new support measures are concentrated primarily in the banking sector through loan guarantee schemes and reduced interest rates, it is essential to provide debt financing to high-quality borrowers and avoid the debt crisis in southern counties.