Access to finance continues to challenge the growth of Australia’s internationally-active businesses according a new survey commissioned by the Export Council of Australia and supported by Efic, the Australian Government’s export finance agency.

The new Australian International Business Survey (AIBS) 2015 is one of the largest and most in-depth surveys of Australian exporters involving over 1,200 Australian internationally active businesses. These businesses are drawn from 19 industry sectors operating across 114 international markets.

Efic’s Senior Economist, Cassandra Winzenried said “we found the participants are generally more optimistic about the current year than they were in 2014 with the weaker Australian dollar being the main reason for this optimism.

“However, the survey also highlighted important financing challenges facing Australia’s internationally-active businesses.”

According to AIBS 2015, 86 per cent of respondents believed retained earnings were an important source of finance for domestic operations that service export sales. This was more than double the percentage that said domestic banks are important.

Ms Winzenried said “around a third of companies that had approached a financial institution in the last three years to expand their international business said they didn’t receive the funding they needed.

“The most common reason for failed funding attempts, at 45 per cent, were security issues, followed by the application being declined to due to inadequate cash flow.”

The report highlighted that a large minority of smaller exporters could do more international business if finance was forthcoming.