Small Business Sales Recovering for 10 Consecutive Weeks

Decrease in Sales Decline for Small Businesses Continues for 10 Consecutive Weeks Since COVID-19 Outbreak

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 17th that the sales decline of small business owners and traditional markets caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has rebounded in early April and has continued to recover for 10 consecutive weeks. This is interpreted as a sustained recovery trend in the small business economy.

The Ministry has been investigating the weekly sales decline rate of small business owners compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak since February 3. According to the latest survey results, the Daejeon, Chungcheong, and Gangwon regions showed a clear recovery trend following last week, and the Gwangju, Honam, and Daegu, Gyeongbuk regions also continued their recovery. However, the metropolitan area, where the number of newly confirmed cases has recently been high, shows a somewhat sluggish recovery. Seoul saw a 7.0 percentage point increase, and Gyeonggi·Incheon saw a 1.7 percentage point increase in the sales decline rate compared to last week. By industry, education services and restaurants continued their recovery from last week, while agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, as well as clothing, shoes, and cosmetics, experienced an increased sales decline compared to last week.

After the stabilization of COVID-19, small business owners requested the government to support promotion and marketing expenses (29.9%), expand small business exclusive gift certificates (20.7%), increase joint events such as local festivals (16.6%), and support online sales (9.2%) in that order.

A Ministry official stated, "The continuous recovery of small business sales over the past 10 weeks appears to be due to the recent use of emergency disaster relief funds, Onnuri gift certificates, and local love gift certificates, which have helped restore consumption," and added, "starting with the first large-scale Korean-style discount sales event focused on non-face-to-face transactions nationwide from June 23 to July 12, called 'Korea Together Sale,' we plan to continuously implement measures to create a nationwide consumption boom and help small business owners regain vitality."