Analytics, Business, Latvia, Markets and Companies

Meanwhile, the entrepreneurs have become more pessimistic about the current situation as compared with their mood in the spring.  

Asked about the overall business activity in the past six months, 85.6% of respondents in the LCCI survey said that it had worsened, with 56% of the surveyed entrepreneurs saying that the situation has deteriorated in their respective industries. In 43.1% of cases respondents admitted deterioration of their companies' finances, 47.7% said that profitability had dropped and 57.7% said that their companies' turnover had contracted. 

In 63.8% of cases entrepreneurs said that competition in their respective sectors had remained unchanged, in 59.7% of cases investment volumes had not changes over the past six months and in 61.2% of cases the number of employees in the companies had remained unchanged. 

The respondents' forecast for the following six months were also rather pessimistic, with 59.4% anticipating general weakening of economic activity in Latvia and 46.2% expecting decreased activity in their respective industries. 

Meanwhile, most entrepreneurs do not expect competition, investment volumes and the number of employees to change in the next six months. Also, 46.9% of respondents did not expect changes in profitability, 43.7% did not anticipate their companies' financial situation to change and 39.6% did not expect changes in their companies' turnover.

SKDS research center conducted the survey for the LCCI, polling 750 entrepreneurs from various regions of Latvia, representing various sectors of the economy. The survey was conducted from September 23 to October 20.