Situation of the non-financial enterprises in the state of emergency in April 2020

In May, the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria conducted for the second time a short business survey amongst non-financial enterprises. The objective of the survey was to collect and present to the society and policy makers information on the economic effects from the declared state of emergency in the country due to COVID-19. 

Amongst the respondent enterprises, 57.6% declared a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services in April compared to March 2020, 32.1% declared no change and 9.2% an increase.

The breakdown by economic sectors showed that 67.9% of the non-financial enterprises in activities ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation, repair of household goods and other services’ had a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services. For the Industry this share was 55.8%, for the Construction - 43.2% and for the ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; transportation and storage; food service activities’ - 67.3%.

As regards the employees, 36.8% 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, followed by ‘unpaid leave’ - 26.9% , ‘teleworking’ - 26.5%, and ‘lay-off’ - 18.5%.

In the following month 90.0% from the non-financial enterprises that answered the survey expect that they will be able to continue their current activity, 6.8% expect to stop to perform economic activity temporary, while 1.6% expect to close down their business.

Source: National Statistical Institute