The second wave of infections and the partial lockdown leave their mark on small and medium-sized enterprises. SME business confidence fell by 4.5 points in November - a significant decline but only moderate compared to the crashes of 18 and 25 points in March and April. Situation assessments presented themselves as relatively steady, while business expectations plunged. Service enterprises are currently the most pessimistic in both size classes. After all, this segment includes all industries that have been directly affected by the lockdown since the beginning of November. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are likely to represent a large share of the critical sectors. Medium-sized retailers, however, also reported a rapid deterioration in business confidence. In the large enterprise segment, the manufacturing sector managed to lift overall sentiment.

KfW-ifo SME Barometer November 2020(PDF, 126 KB, non-accessible)

Press release