You will also find in this panorama a comparison between the situation
of SMEs in France and Spain. Essential in both countries, SMEs are
dependent on challenging economic environment, with an upsurge in
the number of insolvencies since 2009. However, since the crisis, despite
a number of similarities, the situation of SMEs differs between the two
countries. The Spanish economy improves in 2014, driven by the
renewed dynamism of exports, and in parallel the situation of SMEs is
recovering. Thus we expect in 2014 a decrease of the number of insolvencies
of SMEs in Spain. The crisis was less pronounced in France, but
the financial situation of its SMEs gradually degraded and continues to
deteriorate recently. Therefore, the acceleration of growth in France will
stabilize (but at a high level) the number of insolvencies in 2014.