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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and their managers estimated as the main risk reducing the activity by more than 50pct or even closing it, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) reports on Wednesday after a survey into the evolution of the economic activity.
From the analysis of the answers, one in five managers mentioned that by the end of March activity could decrease by to 25pct. Three quarters of the managers who mentioned that the activity will increase are from the retail sector.
Regarding the evolution of the activity in April 2020, the degree of uncertainty increases, so over 48pct of the respondents mentioned that they cannot estimate how the economic activity will evolve. The share of managers who estimated that the activity will not be reduced in April reduced by half from the value of March.
In the industry, about one third of the respondents who mentioned that the activity will be reduced in April, estimated that the activity could be reduced between 25pct and 50pct.
According to the INS, the most affected will be the small and medium-sized enterprises whose managers estimated as the main risk the reduction by over 50pct or even the closure of the activity.
As to the estimate of the evolution of the number of employees until the end of March, almost a quarter of the managers mentioned that they cannot estimate how it will evolve. The largest decreases are estimated to be in the services sector.
The uncertainty for April increases, so the share of managers who mentioned that they cannot estimate the evolution of the number of employees was 43pct of the total respondents.
