Oksana Lobova

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) create more than half of the added value, providing about two-thirds of employment in most countries. However, they need more liquidity, access to credit resources, and significant outstanding loans. This study aims to identify the impact of interest rates on outstanding loans of enterprises on their structure as a way to prevent bankruptcy. The correlation-regression analysis used OECD statistical data for 2008‒2019 sampling individual countries; it showed an ambiguous situation between the interest rate and the share of outstanding loans of SMEs in the overall structure of outstanding loans. The paper verified constructed regression equations and estimated their parameters. The regression equations for Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, and Latvia are statistically reliable. Thus, in Belgium and the Czech Republic, a negative relationship was recorded (r = –0.822; D = 0.675; r = –0.9274; D = 0.794; F-criterion > Ft, respectively), and in Estonia and Latvia – a positive one (r = 0.876; D = 0.767; F-criterion > F•Ft; r = 0.800; D = 0.641; F-criterion > Ft , respectively). Australia, Italy, Slovakia, and France practically do not have a corresponding relationship. The regression equations make it possible to estimate the change in the level of interest rate on the share of outstanding loans of enterprises in the overall structure of outstanding loans, make predictions of the corresponding performance indicator, and develop measures of restoring the solvency of enterprises as an essential task of preventing their bankruptcy.