SMBA "SMEs and Small Business Statistics Lack Timeliness... Need to Establish a Rapid Reporting System"

Exterior view of the headquarters of the Small and Medium Business Venture Institute.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] There has been a call for the urgent establishment of timely statistics to quickly and accurately grasp the status of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners, enabling effective policy formulation.

The Small and Medium Business Venture Institute (SMBVI) stated this on the 7th in a report titled "Cases and Implications of Timely Statistics on SMEs and Small Business Owners in the United States and the United Kingdom." The SMBVI emphasized, "Current official statistics related to domestic SMEs and small business owners lack timeliness," adding, "We rely on one-off surveys that lack consistency and continuity during crises, making it urgent to prepare countermeasures."

According to the report, domestic statistics on SMEs and small business owners have mainly depended on 'one-off surveys' during the COVID-19 period due to limitations in timeliness, which were used to prepare support measures. Although rapid evidence-based policy implementation was necessary to minimize the damage to SMEs and small business owners caused by COVID-19, domestic statistics did not sufficiently support this need.

The SMBVI pointed out the need to pay attention to the timely statistical cases related to SMEs established by the United States and the United Kingdom during the pandemic.

The United States judged that monthly statistics were insufficient to quickly grasp the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and developed and applied various experimental statistics to complement the timeliness of existing statistics.

Since April 2020, immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19, the U.S. has conducted the weekly "Small Business Pulse Survey." This survey consists of an internet and mobile questionnaire lasting about six minutes, extensively investigating SMEs' business conditions such as sales, operating profits, employment, loan repayment and delinquency status, and financial support. Additionally, the U.S. releases the "Business Formation Statistics" weekly, utilizing IRS data.

The United Kingdom also publishes various real-time indicators as experimental statistics to quickly understand the economic and social impacts of COVID-19. A representative example is the "Business Insights and Conditions Survey," conducted biweekly since March 2020. It surveys overall business environments such as sales, supply chain status, and perceived inflation by company size for policy use. The UK also releases weekly administrative statistics on corporate startups and closures from the business registry.

The UK actively utilizes private statistics as well. The UK Office for National Statistics receives SME sales information from small business accounting platforms and job vacancy information from online job advertisement platforms to build real-time statistics.

The SMBVI emphasized, "In a situation where economic uncertainties such as global supply chain shocks and climate change are increasing, the importance of real-time statistics on SMEs and small business owners remains even after COVID-19," adding, "It is urgent to develop various experimental statistics like the U.S. and UK cases while complementing timeliness by shortening the survey cycle of existing nationally approved statistics."

Jang Yunseop, a senior researcher at SMBVI, stated, "Close cooperation and data sharing among related ministries centered on the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, which compiles statistics on SMEs and small business owners, are essential," and added, "We should also consider ways to promote and support the participation of private sector operators such as platform companies in the production, processing, and analysis of statistics related to SMEs and small business owners."