BusinessLive reports that a survey done on behalf of Nedbank shows that almost 65% of small businesses had no turnover during the first five weeks of the national Covid-19 lockdown.  

More than half were forced to temporarily reduce their staff through paid or unpaid leave and a further 26.8% have permanently retrenched workers.  The results — which covered more than 1,000 small businesses with turnover of R30m or less across all industries — comes as worry about effects of the lockdown on the economy intensify and calls mount for the state to begin a measured reopening of businesses.  Small businesses account for about 3.9-million jobs, according to the Small Business Institute.  The Nedbank survey showed that 57% of business owners did not believe they could continue operating over the next six months without having to undergo “significant” changes to their operations, while 10% didn't think they would survive at all.  Underscoring the hammering that economic activity has taken, the BankservAfrica Economic Transaction Index (Beti), which tracks interbank electronic payment transactions under R5m, saw the biggest decline in its history in April.  The Beti declined 13.9% on an annual basis, 15.2% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and 12.3% from the month before.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lynley Donnelly at BusinessLive

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