소상공인 절반 이상 폐업 고민...당정, 소상공인 지원금 역대 최대 규모로 인상
The past year and a half has been devastating for small businesses in South Korea, especially restaurants and hospitality.
In the fourth wave of the pandemic, more than half are now thinking of closing up shop for good.
To help them, the government has decided on another round of relief payments, these the biggest yet,... and they'll be disbursed next month.
Kim Sung-min reports.
Stricter COVID-19 restrictions, including a gathering ban on more than three people,... have crushed the confidence of many small business owners in South Korea and left them questioning the future.
"If I close now, I could at least save on my electric bill. Now I'm paying that and rent. Losing customers at this point is like trampling on business owners."
In fact, many small business owners are considering shutting up shop.
Almost six out of 10 businesses said they might do exactly that, either temporarily or for good.
And seven out of ten small businesses in the capital area where the highest distancing rules are applied,... expect that their sales during July to August will plunge by 40 percent.
This is particularly devastating,... as those two months usually account for almost 25 percent of their annual sales.
Small businesses saw sales drop over 45 percent on-year during that period in 2020,... but with the tightened rules,... that's likely to get even worse this year.
As a result,... the government and the ruling Democratic Party have agreed to expand financial support to small business owners and will start distributing funds from August 17th.
The decision was made on Monday during a meeting of government and ruling party officials.
More than 1 million businesses will be eligible and all are expected to get the financial support before the end of August.
The leader of the ruling party, Song Young-gil, said in this round,...the financial support could be increased up to some 26-thousand U.S. dollars per person,... a bumper raise from the original 7-thousand-900 dollars.
That will make the support payments the biggest of their kind so far.
Song also hinted at a potential expansion of the second supplementary budget,... though those details have yet to be discussed.
Kim Sung-min, Arirang News.
#SouthKorea #recovery #pandemic
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2021-07-19, 17:00 (KST)
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