Number of firms in critical financial distress after Covid.
A growing number of world businesses are at risk of going under, as costs spiral and Covid loan repayments come due. Loan repayment schedules should be extended to ease the pressure, but now the banks and goverments can not keep up with financial aid.
Although Covid restrictions have been lifted, some firms are still feeling the impact of disruptions to supply chains and the price of energy and other inputs have risen sharply.
Firms are finding it hard to recruit staff in some sectors, and wage costs, including the minimum wage and National Insurance payments, have gone up.
During the acute phase of the pandemic many firms relied on state support. But that support was now gone while firms were now facing a perfect storm of rising wage, energy and borrowing costs.
Only last year, many economists were expecting 2022 to be a period of strong economic rebound. Businesses would return to full operation post-Covid. Consumers would be free to splash their accumulated savings on all the holidays and activities they had not been able to do during the pandemic. It would be a new “roaring twenties,” some said, in reference to the decade of consumerism that followed the 1918-21 Spanish flu.
Unfortunately, small and large companies will now be able to fend for themselves. Authorities will turn their backs on all aid and the result will be bankruptcies and the closure of many companies. Despite this information, governments are spreading promises of economic recovery, despite all the problems that remain to be solved.
After all, the only thing to do is to take new steps and to solve your future yourself through a positive attitude. Good Luck !
Thanks for reading,
Windmush/Curt
