September 28 (SeeNews) - The percentage of Bulgarian non-financial enterprises expecting to wind down operations due to the coronavirus crisis increased on a monthly comparison basis in August, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said.
In August, as many as 1.8% of non-financial enterprises expected to close down their business in a month's time because of the crisis, the NSI said in a statement on Friday, citing the results of a survey of over 3,700 companies employing some 230,000 people which it conducted during September 3-23.
In July, 1.4% of non-financial enterprises expected to discontinue their operations in the short term, according to the NSI's previous monthly poll.
The majority of the respondents, 94.5%, said that they expect to continue to operate as usual during the month of September.
The results of the current survey also indicate that 7.9% of the companies chose to lay off personnel in August in order to weather the crisis. As many as 27.6% said they put employees on paid leave and 11.5% put employees on unpaid leave. Firms whose employees are working from home represent 9.4% of all respondents in the most recent survey.
According to the NSI, 37.6% of the companies recorded lower monthly operating revenues in August, up from 34.7% in July, while 49% saw no changes. As many as 12.8% reported a month-on-month rise in revenue in August, down from 18.4% in the previous month.
Some 44.8% of the companies operating in the manufacturing sector saw their revenue fall in August, followed by companies active in the sector of culture, sports and entertainment with a decline in revenue of nearly 38%.