Hinhalagoda lekamalage pulsi kavindya sandeepani ariyarathna

 
Question 11 
With the outbreak of covid - 19 , what action did you take do sustain your business in the 
current status? (See figure 2.13) 
The COVID-19 pandemic created the most severe global recession in the postwar period 
as a result of the limits placed to combat it.The majority of small and medium-sized businesses 
were forced to shut down or saw large revenue declines.Despite the fact that smaller businesses 
have a harder time adopting digital technologies, online sales have helped a number of SMEs 
keep their revenue down.Furthermore, governmental actions were often rapid and strong, and 
they mainly helped to the avoidance of a wave of bankruptcies thus far.Government help within 
countries disproportionately benefited SMEs in the sectors most hit by lockup measures and 
those with severe sales decreases. 

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The financial status of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) was generally favorable 
when the COVID-19 crisis struck.Long-term interest rates were historically low, and monetary 
policy had become more accommodating to compensate for poor economic growth.Credit 
conditions for SMEs had improved, with low credit rejection rates and loan portfolios gradually 
transitioning to longer-term maturities.Despite this, many SMEs continue to rely heavily on 
internal money and bank loans to sustain their operations and growth, making them particularly 
vulnerable to economic downturns.Furthermore, there are hints that alternative sources of credit 
for SMEs, which began to emerge following the financial crisis of 2008-2009, are being 
severely hit by the present crisis, with the risk of reversing previous gains. 
Governments around the world have reacted fast and forcefully by providing significant 
assistance to businesses.While public health was the primary priority, a variety of initiatives 
have been implemented to reduce the outbreak's economic impact, and support has grown and 
strengthened over the course of the year.Central banks have also eased monetary conditions to 
allow commercial banks to give additional loans to SMEs, while governmental institutions have 
provided direct credit. 
Shown below is the results of the voting question given to the selected group asking 
what they have done in order to survive the Covid-19 Stuck economy. 
 
Figure 2.13 Response to Question 11 (Author Construction) 
48.6% of the votes have went to” increase production” option and most certainly they 
might be in the Business of Essential services because in the covid struck society, essential 
servers became the lead in supply of needs in communities.45.7% have voted to “additional 
capitala and infrastructire”.In the Apparel industry, they had to alloacate more space for the 
workers because they had to continue the apparel manufacturing factories while keeping the 

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employees at safe distances from each other,as it was one of the major incomes of the 
country.Also the Tea industry underwent the same procedure due to the same reason as apparel 
thus the need of more infrastructe and capital is explained. 
Next with 34.4% of votes , “remote work access” takes the third place.Online service 
providers such as call center operators for emegency numbers, marketing agencies and already 
online jobs such as web developing went completely remote as the processes can be continued 
without reporting physically to a office.Next there is the decresing of the number of employees 
with a 32.9% .Some small and Medium Enterprises had to let some of their employees go, as 
the income of the businesses went so low and the operating budget had to be decreased.This 
happened worldwide creating a jobless community in everycountry overnight.And at last there 
is the “hiring of additional employees” which also happend in most of the businesses in essential 
services such as power, food and agriculture,medicine etc.New nurses, health officers, farmers, 
safety officers and lot more vacancies opened and more employees were demanded in these 
sectors as the essential services came to be the only operations running in most countries during 
lockdown periods.