JM 45% OF COMPANIES IN THE REGION DECLARED A REDUCTION OF OVER 50% IN TURNOVER

A straight translation from JM

The Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) today released the results of the 2nd half of May 2020 of COVID-IREE – Quick and Exceptional Business Survey, a statistical operation created by the National Statistics Institute (INE) and the Bank of Portugal (BdP) to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the national business fabric.

Thus, the main conclusions regarding the respondent companies in the 2nd half of May 2020 are as follows:

– 82% of the companies were in production or in operation and 17% were temporarily closed. At the national level, these percentages were 92% and 7%, respectively. Despite the differential for the country, the percentage of companies operating in this fortnight is higher than that seen in the 1st fortnight of May (76%);

– Compared to the expected situation without a pandemic, 79% of companies continued to report a negative impact on turnover and 13% said there was no impact. In the country, the percentages corresponding to these situations were, in the same order, 73% and 21%;

– 45% of companies declared a reduction of over 50% in turnover and 26% a decrease between 10% and 50%. At the national level, 31% of companies reported a reduction of over 50% in turnover;

– When comparing the 2nd half of May with the 1st half of May, 43% of companies point to a stabilization of turnover, with 44% pointing to a slight variation, in an upward or downward direction. At the national level, the percentages for the two situations referred to above (stabilization or slight variation) are 40% and 44%, respectively;

– The evolution of orders/customers was the main factor mentioned by companies with reduced turnover in this period, while the change in containment measures was the reason most cited by companies that reported increases;

– In view of the expected situation without a pandemic, 51% of the responding companies continued to report reductions in the number of staff actually working (45% in the country), representing 54% of the staff working for the responding companies. 44% reported that there was no impact (31% of the total staff employed by the respondent companies), and in the country, the percentage was 51%;

– 27% declared a reduction of more than 50% in the number of employees actually working and 12% pointed to decreases between 10% and 50%. At the national level, only 17% reported a reduction above 50%;

– Comparing the situation in the 2nd half of May with the 1st half of May, 72% of the companies did not report changes in the number of persons employed (71% at the national level);

– The reduction in the number of persons employed in simplified lay-off was the reason with the most positive impact reported by the companies that reported an increase in the number of employees actually working;

– 44% of the respondent companies had teleworkers and 43% of the companies recorded the existence of personnel working alternately at the company’s facilities due to the pandemic. These percentages are lower than in the country, where the figures were 53% and 46%, respectively;

– 86% of the companies pointed to high costs as a very relevant or relevant situation for the difficulty in complying with the requirements for the resumption of activity, while 81% indicated the restrictions in the physical space and 79% of the companies referred to the unavailability of individual protection (masks, visors, disinfectant, etc.);

– 38% of companies benefited or plan to benefit from the credit moratorium, 64% of access to new credits, while the suspension of payment of tax and contributory obligations is in the plans of 42% of companies;

– 24% of the companies in operation or temporarily closed increased the use of credit in the 2nd half of May, in most cases with conditions similar to those previously practised.

DREM also says that it is possible to establish a comparison between April and May data, averaging the results obtained.

Thus, while in April the percentage of companies in operation was 69%, in May it increased to 79%. In the country, in the same months, it went from 83% to 91%.

The percentage of responding companies reporting a negative impact on turnover, in view of the expected situation without a pandemic, decreased from 88% in April to 81% in May, and at a national level, these percentages were 80% and 75%, respectively.

With regard to employed persons, the evolution between April and May is also visible, with 71% declaring a reduction in the number of employed persons actually working in April against 53% in May. In the country, in those months, it went from 60% to 48%.

The percentage of companies in operation or temporarily closed that resorted to additional credit increased slightly between the two periods under analysis, from 19% to 23%, a trend similar to that which occurred in the country.

In the note published by DREM, it can also be read that this survey, in its genesis, aimed to “collect data for the country, not being designed for surveys at the Regional level, and the information presented for RAM corresponds exclusively to data from answers obtained, without any extrapolation “.

A few photos taken in Funchal yesterday morning 11am