Kuwait- Half of small businesses in Europe face bankruptcy within a...

(MENAFN – Al-Anbaa) An economic survey expects about half of small and medium-sized companies in Europe to bankrupt during the next year if revenues do not increase, which highlights the size of the economic damage caused by the emerging coronavirus pandemic.

According to a survey conducted by McKinsey & Co. Consulting last August, which included more than 2,200 small and medium-sized companies in the 5 largest economies in Europe, one out of every five companies in Italy and France will go bankrupt within the next six months.

And Bloomberg News indicated that small and medium-sized companies are essential to European economies, as they contribute about two-thirds of the number of jobs in them, as well as they represent more than half of the value added to the economy in the region.

The Corona pandemic has caused great damage to European companies, with revenues of about 70 percent of companies declining. The decline increased in Italy and Spain, which were the hardest hit by the pandemic, and were forced to impose stricter lockdown measures to limit the spread of the virus.

The vast majority of companies described the state of the economy as weak, and this raises fears of an increase in loan defaults and the resort to layoffs of more workers. And governments in all countries surveyed announced additional programs to support jobs in an attempt to curb the high unemployment rate with the increasing number of people infected with the emerging coronavirus.

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