Almost two-thirds of managers in RO can’t see where their business is going

The share of Romanian companies uncertain about the future of their business has risen in April compared to March, according to a survey conducted by the statistics office INS among the managers of companies in the manufacturing, construction, retail, and services industries.

Nearly two in three, namely 63% of the companies polled, have been unable to estimate the evolution of their activity volumes in April, compared to 50% in March. The share includes the managers who said they couldn't answer this question (34.3% of the total in April, up from 21.2% in March) and those who didn't answer at all (some 29% both in March and April).

One of the conclusions of the survey is the high and rising level of uncertainty among managers. Separately, the INS survey shows that the expected impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the companies' activity has increased.

Thus, of the managers who could estimate the evolution of their business, 45% said they expected a drop of over 25% (up from 33.3% in March).

Moreover, the share of those who said they would probably close their business increased from 9.8% to 13.8%.

The worst situation was in the hotel and restaurant sector, where over 95% of the managers who could evaluate the evolution of their business said they would record a drop of over 25% or even close their activity. In construction, the share was 61.4%, and, in the manufacturing industry - over 40%.

The restrictions enforced by the authorities to limit the spreading of the new coronavirus pandemic have determined a standstill in many sectors starting the second half of March.

(Photo: Aleksandr Zubkov/ Dreamstime)