Assessing the COVID-19 Impact on Bulgarian SMEs
Assessing the COVID-19 Impact on Bulgarian SMEs

Author(s): Svetlana Aleksandrova-Zlatanska
Subject(s): Economy, National Economy
Published by: Университет за национално и световно стопанство (УНСС)
Keywords: COVID-19; Asymmetric Shock; Resilience
Summary/Abstract: The article examined the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on real economic activities and related effects for SMEs. The Bulgarian economic growth and business activity were affected and macroeconomic environment immediately has changed. The pandemic was unprecedented asymmetric shock for Bulgarian economy. The COVID -19 caused a major shock for SMEs because of their lower resilience to the external shocks. The Bulgarian government has responded to the crisis by adopting emergency economic and social measures focused on support liquidity of the economic entities and on preventing staff layoffs. The purpose of the paper is to identify the effects of measures taken on the efficiency of the SME in Bulgaria. The measures targeting to the survival of SMEs and social measures for preserving household incomes and for helping employees who are laid off are funded from national budget and EU programs. As a result of adequate and timely measures in terms of employment and income subsidies, the unemployment rate has not increased significantly and is lower than the EU average. The benefits of a package of the economic and social measures cannot been assessed accurately, as well as for the most affected sectors of the outbreak pandemic crisis because of insufficient empirical evidences and ongoing emergency.

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