More price hikes on the way
Over one in five small and medium-sized enterprises plans to raise their prices of goods or services in the second half of 2023, showing that inflationary pressures will continue for some time to come.
Despite the increase, however, in production and operating costs, SMEs seem to have seen better days in 2022, with more than half recording profits last year, for the first time since 2019, and making investments as well as hiring new employees.
Liquidity problems – although smaller compared to previous years – remain significant, as one in four SMEs has zero cash on hand. The problem is aggravated by the significant rise in the cost of money due to inflation. This issue, combined with inflation hurting consumption, is worrying businesses, which are now considerably more nervous about disruptions to their operations than they were in early 2023.
So according to the six-monthly economic climate survey by the Small Business Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professional Craftsmen and Merchants (ΙΜΕ GSEVEE), after the jump recorded in the second half of 2022 at 69.5 points, being the highest performance ever recorded in an IME GSEVEE survey, the economic climate index of small and very small businesses fell slightly in the first half of 2023 to 66.7 points.
