The Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE) provides information on the financing needs of euro area firms, their economic performance, and the availability of external funding. The article illustrates the role that the SAFE has played over the past 15 years. First, it discusses the contribution of the survey to assessing the transmission of monetary policy decisions to firms’ access to finance and their financing conditions. Second, the article shows how SAFE-based data provide timely evidence of the impact of economic crises on firms’ performance. Third, the article documents the ability of SAFE-based indicators to track important shifts in the economic business cycle. Finally, the article discusses new survey modules that facilitate the analysis of the pricing and wage-setting behaviour of firms, along with their inflation expectations.
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