Situation of the non-financial enterprises in the epidemic situation in January 2021

The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria conducted short business survey amongst non-financial enterprises aiming to collect and present to the society and policy makers information on the economic effects from the declared state of emergency and the ensuing epidemic situation in the country due to COVID-19.

Amongst the responded enterprises, 42.8% declared a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services in January 2021 compared to December 2020, 45.3% declared no change and 11.2% an increase.

The breakdown by economic sectors showed that 54.0% of the non-financial enterprises in ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation, repair of household goods and other services had a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services’, followed by ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; transportation and storage; food service activities’ with 48.6%. For the industry this share was 41.0% and for the ‘Construction’ - 46.6%.

As regards the employees, 15.0% from the responding non-financial enterprises answered that they had to use ‘paid leave’ as a measure for reducing the effects from the state of emergency and the epidemic situation, followed by ‘Unpaid leave’ - 14.9%, ‘Teleworking’ - 13.7% and ‘government subsidies’ - 9.9%.

In the following month 92.9% from the answered non-financial enterprises, expect that they will be able to continue their current activity, 3.4% expect to stop to perform economic activity temporary, while 2.0% expect to close down their business.