Situation of the non-financial enterprises in the state of emergency and the ensuing epidemic situation in September 2020

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, 32.2% declared a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services in September compared to August 2020, 49.5% declared no change and 17.8% an increase.

The breakdown by economic sectors showed that 37.1% of the non-financial enterprises in Construction had a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services, for the industry this share was 34.3%. In activities ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation, repair of household goods and other services’, 35.4% from the responded firms reported a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services, while for the ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; transportation and storage; food service activities’ this share was 30.9%.

As regards the employees, 17.1% 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’ - 10.0% , ‘lay-off of employees’ - 9.1% and ‘government subsidies’ - 8.3%.