The catastrophical March: more than 50 thousand companies were closed in Great Britain

In 2019, the number of the closed companies in the country was less by 21 thousand, according to the Enterprise Research Center (ERC). The deputy head of the research center Mark Hart admitted that March 2020 was "disastrous". He noted that the statistics of the UK Registration Chamber may not reflect the true situation, since technically it can take more than one month to officially liquidate the organization. Hart noted that the center’s analysts used data from Moody's.

According to the expert, the real picture refutes any optimistic forecasts.

- Hopes that this will be a V-shaped recession does not match the number of closed companies. This is more like an L-shaped recession. These companies are shutting down for good, says Hart.

Hart believes that a total collapse of British business can be prevented only by taking additional support measures. Today, the kingdom authorities launched the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan program, however, the head of the ERC is sure that it cannot cope with the load.

The government also needs, the expert believes, to accelerate the support of business, for example, as part of a lending program - it was literally flooded with applications.

The UK fiscal responsibility department, in turn, predicts a 35% drop in economic activity over three months. The head of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, agrees with this forecast, adding that after the “wounds heal”, there will still be “scars” that will remind of themselves for a long time.

Note that the largest number of company closures was recorded in London - 6,431 organizations ceased to work forever. Compared to March last year, the figure in Wales and West Midland doubled. And the transport sector turned out to be the most affected.

Recall that in Russia the tourism industry was the most affected . Unlike many other segments of the economy, where you can set up remote work, such services are impossible for hotels and travel agencies that have lost their customers overnight. The most critical situation is in the Krasnodar Territory, where the regional government has introduced strict measures of self-isolation. Perhaps the holiday season will be a failure.

In the center of the Russian capital hotel loading is at a level of 2-5%. Vice-President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia Vadim Prasov called this situation a “collapse”.

At the same time, about half of the representatives of Russian small and medium-sized businesses will not be able to take advantage of state support, designed to minimize the loss of the economy from a pandemic, since they do not fall into the category of the industry affected by the coronavirus. Now a decision has been made to expand the list of such industries.

According to the Chamber of Commerce, currently 46% of all entrepreneurs have suspended their work, while 41% are trying to save jobs and pay their employees wages.