Some 35 thousand SMEs consider closing their doors: there was a record of loans

The SME sector is one of the hardest hit by the quarantine. Estimated losses amount to US $ 115 million per day. The outlook for April is not encouraging.

A survey by the Fundación Observatorio Pyme (FOP) indicates that only 10% of MSMEs are fully operational, there are 36% of companies that are specifically operational, while 54% of the segment is completely inactive, which represents approximately 325 thousand companies.

Different sector monitoring analyzed reveals drops in sales of SMEs, ranging from 75% to 90%.

In this sense, FOP indicates that only 16% of MSMEs can face the payment of salaries and fixed expenses for April without the assistance of the Government.

On the other hand, a fact that shows the pressing situation of SMEs is that 24% of companies cannot face the expenses of that month, not even with official aid, so they have to go into debt or increase the capital contribution. own, published Ámbito Financiero.

Of the losses of SMEs, 6% are those that currently have activity paralyzed, which represents around 35,000 companies.

The FOP survey warns that if another part of the companies that cannot face the April expenditures is added via credit or own report of the owners or shareholders. Among all the variables, 605 thousand jobs are at risk.

The most committed SMEs belong mostly to the service sector (9%) and to the micro (7%) and small (6%) dimension.

“6% of the total of SMEs explicitly say that they are considering abandoning their activity because they cannot pay wages or with the help of the Government, and they do not have the capacity to borrow. But in addition, 25% of companies cannot afford the expenses of April with the help of the Government and, although it says that it is going to get into debt or contribute new capital, if it does not succeed, an implicit bankruptcy occurs and there the occupational impact will be much stronger, “says Vicente Donato, president of Observatorio Pyme, published The Nation.

Credits

The disbursement of bank loans in the last ten business days, between March 13 and April 1, totaled $ 148,000 million, a record figure for the series of loans to the private sector published by the Central Bank (BCRA), according to a survey carried out by the Association of Argentine Banks (Adeba).

This amount of bank loans is unprecedented, neither in nominal values ​​nor in percentage variations (8% increase in the period considered), said Adeba, which groups 25 financial entities, both private and public.

The stock of loans in pesos to the private sector, which exceeded $ 1,990,000 million as of April 1, was aimed at satisfying the demand of companies “for the payment of wages, working capital and current account agreements, as well as in consumer finance and other needs of individuals “.

“The data available for April 2 and 3 confirm that the upward trend continues,” said Adeba, the entity that brings together locally-owned financial institutions, in a statement.

The association highlighted that “unofficial data, emerged from private surveys, show that loans continued to grow at a good pace, with a strong focus on SMEs, until Wednesday April 9.”

From a survey between different banks carried out by Télam at the beginning of the week, it emerged that, in the segment of credits to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), the banks had lent more than $ 20,000 million for the payment of wages and other financing (discount of checks and working capital).

These are lines of financing at a maximum rate of 24% per year, promoted by the BCRA by releasing nearly $ 300 billion in liquidity to financial institutions through Communication A 6943.

In turn, the Ministry of Productive Development launched this week the Argentine Guarantee Fund (Fogar), to which it will allocate $ 30,000 million to give certainty to the banks and, in this way, facilitate the access of monotributistas and Mipymes to the credits.