May 27 (SeeNews) - The percentage of managers of accommodation facilities in Bulgaria expecting to close down their business in the short term as a result of the coronavirus crisis has decreased on a monthly comparison basis in April, a new survey by the country's statistical office indicated on Wednesday.
Some 3.4% of the managers of accommodation facilities in Bulgaria expect to close their business in a month's time due to the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis seen in April, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a statement, citing the results of a survey it conducted during May 7-22 among more than 1,700 managers of accommodation facilities.
This compared with over 6.0% of respondents in the NSI's survey for the month of March.
According to the results of the new survey, more than half of the accommodation facilities, 56.6%, plan to maintain their operations within the next month,albeit at a lower capacity, while 24.3% intend to temporarily halt operations. Some 13.5% of the respondents plan to continue to operate as usual, the NSI said.
At the same time, 36.8% of the managers said that they were forced to lay off employees as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, compared to 35% in NSI's previous poll. As many as 31.7% have put employees on paid leave and 37.2% have put workers on unpaid leave, the latest survey showed.
The results of the poll also indicate that in April 19.8% of accommodation facilities benefited from the government's job retention scheme popularly known as the '60-40 measure'.
Under the support scheme for preserving employment worth 1.5 billion levs ($834.7 milllion/766.9 million euro), the government finances 60% of the wage costs, including the employers' social security contributions, of undertakings that, due to the coronavirus confinement measures, would otherwise lay off personnel. The measure is restricted to undertakings active in the sectors most affected by the crisis.
NSI also said that 82.3% of accommodation facility managers saw their operating revenues fall in April on a monthly comparison basis, compared to 72.2% in March.
Nearly 41.0% of the managers expect that they will be able to service up to 50.0% of their operating expenses with own funds in the following month, while 42.0% say they will be unable to service any expenses with own funds. Just 16.0% say they will be able to cover fully their operating expenses in a month's time.
Since May 14 Bulgaria is in a one-month state of epidemic emergency, which replaced the state of emergency imposed by the government for the period March 13 - May 13 to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)