Assessment of the efficiency of implementing the regional program of preferential lending to small and medium-sized businesses (based on Rostov region)

Financial factors are crucial for the development of small and medium-sized businesses. The article dwells on the issue of the effectiveness of regional financial support for small and medium-sized businesses implemented in the form of preferential lending, and it also discusses “failures” that generate problems in the implementation of this support. The research object is Rostov region. The authors prove that it is difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to obtain a loan on normal terms due to instability of financial flows. As a result of the analysis, the authors reveal that the volume of lending to small businesses in Rostov region is steadily declining. The decrease in demand for loans from small businesses is connected with high interest rates on bank loans. The article emphasizes that concessional lending can solve the problem through the encouragement of business development in priority areas for the region. The correlation analysis is carried out on the basis of comparing the main indicators of the regional subprogram “Development of small and medium-sized businesses in Rostov region” and indicators of social and economic development of the region. According to the results of the analysis, there is an increase in the number of economic entities in the section of small and medium-sized businesses due to unemployment reduction in the region. However, this quantitative dependence in Rostov region is functionallyunstable and probabilistic. At the same time, inefficient organizational and methodological activities of the state in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises have lead to the emergence of “failures” that generate the problem not of the lack of financial resources but of their low demand.