BERLIN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - There is no credit crunch for Germany's engineering sector even though borrowing terms have deteriorated recently due to the economic downturn, Germany's VDMA engineering industry association said on Wednesday.
The VDMA said it had taken a lightning poll of 251 companies and found that the overwhelming majority of firms were reporting banks were sticking to their previous commitments.
The VDMA noted, however, that it was mostly large companies taking part in the survey and said it was possible smaller firms were having a more difficult time getting access to lending.
"The results of the survey show a surprisingly positive picture," said VDMA managing director Hannes Hesse.
"But the overall result should not cloud the fact that individual companies or individual sectors could be having some problems."
The VDMA reported last week that engineering orders fell by 16 percent in real terms in October from the previous year and orders were down 8 percent in the August-October period from a year ago. (Reporting by Christina Ammann; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Hans Peters)