Bank loans and stock market financing for SMEs continue to grow in real terms during 2026.
Among the various lines of financing, credit in pesos accumulated a real increase of 73.4%, while loans in foreign currency showed an even stronger growth, reaching 228.6%. The advance of financing in dollars also reflects a greater normalization of the financial market and a reduction of the expectations of a currency crisis that dominated during previous governments.
The report released by the minister also indicates that during the first quarter of 2026, credit allocated to SMEs represented 2.8% of the Gross Domestic Product, which implies an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to the levels recorded at the end of 2023.
These indicators reflect the impact of the economic stabilization process, the inflationary slowdown, and the recovery of private credit after years in which negative rates, monetary issuance, and controls completely distorted access to productive financing.
The improvement in credit conditions also appears as one of the main objectives of the administration to boost investment, employment, and sustained growth in the private sector, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises, historically hit by fiscal pressure, inflation, and lack of access to credit.
The Minister of Economy, Luis "Toto" Caputo, highlighted this Sunday the strong expansion that financing for small and medium-sized enterprises has been experiencing, amid the recovery of economic activity and the macroeconomic stabilization driven by the Government of Javier Milei.
Through his social media, Caputo stated that "financing for SMEs continues to grow" and shared a series of official indicators showing a significant increase in productive credit both in pesos and in foreign currency.
As detailed by the head of the Treasury, during March the stock of bank loans directed to SMEs grew by 1.4% monthly in real terms. Thus, financing for the sector accumulated an expansion of 95.6% compared to December 2023, when the liberal management began.
The most relevant data pointed out by the minister is that this represents "the largest expansion of credit to SMEs in the first 27 months of management in the last 23 years", a figure that the Government interprets as a sign of recovery of confidence and reactivation of the private economy after years of stagnation and uncontrolled inflation.
