[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] In November, the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Business Outlook Index for the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions recorded 92.4, rising 3.6 points compared to the previous month.
The Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Headquarters of the Korea Federation of SMEs conducted a business outlook survey targeting 204 local SMEs from the 15th to the 22nd.
The index has shown a continuous upward trend for three consecutive months, recording 76.5 in September and 88.8 in October.
Despite sluggish domestic demand and rising raw material prices, the expansion of COVID-19 vaccination and the acceleration of phased daily recovery are believed to have contributed to the positive expectations reflected in the index.
By region, Gwangju rose 7.7 points from the previous month to 94.0, while Jeonnam fell 2.9 points to 89.7.
By industry, manufacturing increased by 1.8 points to 95.5, and non-manufacturing rose by 5.2 points to 89.4.
Outlooks for domestic sales (89.5→91.9), exports (91.2→98.2), operating profit (82.3→85.8), and financial conditions (82.1→86.3) all improved.
As a result, the employment outlook, which had been showing a counter-trend (98.1→96.1), also somewhat improved compared to the previous month.
The main management difficulties were dominated by sluggish domestic demand (61.3%). This was followed by rising raw material prices (51.0%), excessive competition among companies (51.0%), and rising labor costs (44.6%).
The average operating rate of small and medium manufacturing enterprises in September was 69.5%, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous month (69.3%).
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