TY - BOOK ID - 134287783 TI - Unlocking Access to Finance for SMEs: A Cross-Country Analysis AU - Fouejieu, Armand. AU - Ndoye, Anta. AU - Sydorenko, Tetyana. PY - 2020 PB - Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, DB - UniCat KW - Corporate Finance KW - Finance: General KW - Money and Monetary Policy KW - Industries: Financial Services KW - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis KW - Economic Development: Financial Markets KW - Saving and Capital Investment KW - Corporate Finance and Governance KW - Corporate Finance and Governance: General KW - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy KW - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit: General KW - Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation KW - Financial Institutions and Services: General KW - Ownership & organization of enterprises KW - Finance KW - Monetary economics KW - Small and medium enterprises KW - Financial inclusion KW - Credit KW - Bank credit KW - Financial services KW - Economic sectors KW - Financial markets KW - Money KW - Business environment KW - Small business KW - Financial services industry KW - Business enterprises KW - Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:134287783 AB - Countries in the MENAP and CCA regions have the lowest levels of financial inclusion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the world. The paper provides empirical evidence on the drivers of SME access to finance for a large sample of countries, and identifies key policy priorities for these two regions: economic and institutional stability, competition, public sector size and government effectiveness, credit information infrastructure (e.g., credit registries), the business environment (e.g., legal frameworks for contract enforcement), and financial supervisory and regulatory capacity. The analysis also shows that improving credit information, economic competition, the business environment along with economic development and better governance would help close the SME financial inclusion gap between MENAP and CCA regions and the best performers. The paper concludes on the need to adopt holistic policy strategies that take into account the full range of macro and institutional requirements and reforms, and prioritize these reforms in accordance with each country’s specific characteristics. ER -