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09.07.2020 2 NEWS SALES EXECUTIVES FULL-TIME / PART-TIME MASSIMO COSTA WAGE subsidies have helped prevent redundancies, but low post-coronavirus sales and in- sufficient aid for rent payments are major issues for businesses, a survey has found. e survey, carried out by the Chamber of SMEs involved 362 respondents, 70% of which indicated that they felt they cannot survive for more than 12 months in the current situ- ation, Twenty-two percent said they could survive another three months, 33% up to six months, 15% up to 12 months, and 30% said they could keep going for more than a year. Calling the situation "precari- ous," SMEs Chamber president Paul Abela said the government had to carefully consider not stopping the wage supplement in September, since doing so could lead to serious problems. "e short length of time businesses can survive depicts a somewhat precarious state – 70% say they won't last more than a year. is is worrying," Abela said, as he acknowledged that the expectations were based on the status quo, and that things could improve in the next months." "If the wage assistance is stopped before the end of the year, this will exacerbate things," he added, however. e survey was carried out between 29 June to 4 July, and involved respondents from across Malta's businesses in various sectors, including re- tail, restaurants, hotels and other business-to-business and business-to-consumer servic- es. Sales are biggest concern Sales levels were cited by 79% of businesses as being their big- gest current concern, followed by uncertainty, at 69%. For the biggest percentage of businesses – 32% - sales figures compared to the same period last year stood at 50%, while 31% said they were only selling 10% of what they did in the cor- responding period in 2019. e positive impact of the government's wage subsidy can be seen in the fact that, while salaries where the biggest con- cern in the previous survey, businesses were now more worried about sales since they were receiving assistance with paying their employees. "But even if the government's helps with wages, if a business doesn't make enough sales, it has a problem. Businesses need to reach a certain sales thresh- old if they are to make money," Chamber of SMEs president Paul Abela said on Wednesday. e wage subsidy has also prevented businesses from lay- ing off workers, with only 13% having made any redundan- cies. Of those who did make re- dundancies, the majority (58%) laid off ten or less workers. €2,500 rent subsidy not enough e majority of business- es said that the government's one-time €2,500 rent grant was not sufficient to help with their burden. On a scale of 1 (lowest) and 5 (highest), 39% of businesses rated the level of rent assistance from the gov- ernment a 1, while 19% gave it a 2 and 25% a 3. Only 10% and 7% respectively gave it a 4 or 5. irty-two percent of busi- nesses said they paid more than €2,000 a month in rent, 30% more than €5,000 and 12% over €10,000. Abela said the rent situation was a complex one, which the government had to consid- er carefully, because, togeth- er with sales levels, it would be one of the determinants of whether a company would keep going. "And I a company closes shop and stops renting their premises, then even the rental market will lose out. A land- lord is not going to be able to rent the premises to someone else in this current climate," he highlighted. "e €2,500 rent grant is clearly not enough, as the sta- tistics show... e survey shows that the wage supplement and rent are the biggest pillars on what everything is based," Ab- ela added. 70% of businesses can't survive more than a year in current post-COVID situation – survey Chamber of SMEs survey finds wage subsidies prevented redundancies, but sales and insufficient rent assistance remain challenges for businesses' survival

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