SME morale, while better than last autumn, is still affected by the second wave of epidemics that hit Europe in various areas at the end of 2020, according to the SME ‘Business Climate Index’ published by SMEunited on Monday 15 March.
Although the business climate index shows a partial recovery of 5.2% to 59.8% after the record negative of 54.6% recorded in autumn 2020, the recovery was slower than forecasted, SMEunited commented in a press release. SME confidence ranges from a low of 30.2 to a high of 75.5 percentage points.
The index does reveal a great heterogeneity between Member States. Italy, Spain and France, all heavily affected by the first wave of the epidemic, show a general improvement in their national indices, while Germany and Austria are showing a deterioration in confidence among SMEs. The gap in the national indices in the first half of 2021 between Northern and Central Europe on the one hand and Southern and Peripheral Europe on the other has therefore been partially closed.
The summer derestriction of pandemic measures in 2020 led to a recovery in all sectors, SMEunited notes, although personal and business services were particularly affected, unlike the construction sector.
To access the study: https://bit.ly/30Hl8B3 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)