Ease of doing business for MSMEs: An international survey of 3,700 business owners and executives to get their thoughts on the current economic climate and its impact on small and medium businesses (SMBs) noted that 97 per cent of respondents from India were confident of weathering a potential financial storm. The strong sense of economic resilience in businesses of the world’s fifth largest economy was ahead of 73 per cent of business owners in America and in sharp contrast to European nations — 43 per cent in the UK, 66 per cent in France, and 68 per cent in Germany — which weren’t as confident.
The survey How to Prepare for Economic Headwinds was conducted by market research firm OnePoll and commissioned by software company GoTo from August 25 to September 2, 2022, in nine countries including Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Australia with 80 per cent, 90 per cent, 76 per cent, 82 per cent of business owners in respective countries confident of facing likely economic turmoil.
“Recession, inflation, economic headwinds, pandemic: these are all words that cause business leaders to react. But how they react seems to be dependent on where they live and work,” the survey report said.
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The economic gloom around the world has been anticipated by global experts. For instance, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at its annual public forum in Geneva in September had noted that that the world may be “edging” into recession.
Earlier this month, World Bank President David Malpass had also told reporters on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting that the world economy, with reduced growth forecast to 1.9 per cent from 3 per cent is ‘dangerously close” to a global recession.
However, global rating agency S&P in September had noted that while the US and the Euro zone are headed to recession, India is unlikely to face the impact given the “not so coupled” nature of its economy with the global economy, PTI reported. On the other hand, the Reserve Bank of India had cut the FY23 GDP forecast to 7 per cent from 7.2 per cent in August.
Meanwhile, the GoTo survey noted that 93 per cent of the respondents in nine countries said they have what to do for any future potential disruptions while 51 per cent said they have faced economic headwinds in the past.
