Six out of 10 Catalan companies suffer from war in Ukraine

The majority of Catalan companies have been affected by the war in Ukraine in some way. 58.7% of businesses have suffered due to Russia’s invasion, especially the industry, hotel, and commerce sectors, according to data released on Thursday by the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat).

The war has mainly impacted small businesses, as it affects 64.3% of small and medium-sized companies. 

Some of the measures that could alleviate the impact, the NextGenerationEU funds, are unknown to 40% of the enterprises, while 42.1% are aware of them but they do not meet the conditions. 

However, only 17.1% of companies who are aware of the funds have requested them. The vast majority of those asking for economic aid are businesses from the industrial and hotel sector. 

Regarding Covid-19, one out of every three companies, 33.7%, have been affected by the pandemic during the first quarter of 2022. 

Returning to a normal income level will be complicated for 44.6% of the companies, as they believe it will take over one year to reach pre-pandemic numbers. On the other hand, 3.4% of businesses have reached those figures and over 30% will do so in the upcoming months.