Situation of the non-financial enterprises in the state of emergency and the ensuing epidemic situation in November 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, 41.7% declared a decrease in revenues from sales of goods and services in November compared to October 2020, 46.1% declared no change and 11.8% an increase.

Change in revenues from sales of goods and services in non-financial enterprises as compared to previous month, 2020

The breakdown by economic sectors showed that 52.8% 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 48.3%. For the industry this share was 43.0% and for the ‘Construction’ - 36.4%.

As regards the employees, 20.4% 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 ‘Teleworking’ - 18.0% , ‘Unpaid leave’ - 17.0% and ‘government subsidies’ - 9.8%.

In the following month 92.5% from the answered non-financial enterprises, expect that they will be able to continue their current activity, 4.5% expect to stop to perform economic activity temporary, while 2.1% expect to close down their business.

The survey of „Non-financial enterprises“ was carried out in December, in the sample ware included 3 770  enterprises with at about 230 thousand employees. The participation in the survey was voluntary.

The unit of observation is enterprise, which carries out one or more activities on one or more locations and produces goods or services for third parties. The definition of the enterprise meets the requirements of Regulation (EC) No. 696/93 for statistical units. The data refer to the activities of non-financial enterprises carried out on the territory of the country in 2020.

The coverage of economic activities is as follows: Industry; Construction; Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; transportation and storage; food service activities; Real estate activities; Information and communication; Professional, scientific and technical activities; administrative and support service activities; Arts, entertainment and recreation, repair of household goods and other services.

Not covered by the survey are economic activities: Agriculture, forestry and fishing; Financial and insurance activities; Human health and social work activities; Education; Public administration, defense,  compulsory social security.