CAPE TOWN - A Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) survey among 707 businesses has shown that many formal sector operators have experienced heavy losses due to the government-enforced Covid-19 lockdown, now in its extended phase.
Many of the businesses indicated that they were not confident they could continue operating for the duration of the pandemic.
The results of the rapid response survey were released by Stats SA on Monday.
Businesses were asked how the current crisis had affected their operations for the period March 30 to April 13. The country's lockdown started on March 27.
It said, more than 700 businesses in the formal sector responded to the survey, outlining the pandemic’s impact on turnover, trading, workforce, imports and exports, purchases, prices, and business survival.
According to the report, five in six businesses surveyed experienced a drop in turnover over the reference period.
About 85.4% of businesses surveyed reported turnover below the normal range. Respondents in the construction, real estate and other business services, and transport industries were the most affected by lower than expected turnover.
The report further showed that 42.2% of respondents indicated that they are not confident that they have the financial resources to continue operating through the Covid-19 pandemic.
When asked how long business can continue without turnover, 54% of respondents indicated that they can survive without turnover between one to three months.
“Half of the businesses surveyed have temporarily closed their doors, the industries reporting the highest percentages of temporary closure or paused trading activity were construction, manufacturing, trade and mining,” Stats SA said in a statement.
In terms of workforce size, 50.4% of respondents expected no change, while 36.8% anticipated a decline.
The report said that respondents indicated that they have implemented a range of measures to cope with the impact of the pandemic on their workforce, including decreasing working hours and laying off staff in the short term.
Only about one in four businesses indicated that they had not taken any measures yet.
“Most businesses (65%) anticipate that the Covid-19 pandemic will impact their business substantially worse than the 2008/09 global financial crisis. Only 4.3% of respondents indicated that the impact will be the same,” Stats SA said.