Inflation and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis worry 77% of business leaders according to a survey

With inflation, the rise in the cost of energy and raw materials and the start of the crisis in Ukraine, there is a drop in activity for 54% of respondents, who indicate that consumers have noticed a brake on pleasure purchases.

This observation is particularly significant among the following sectors:

• Personal equipment (80%)
• CHR (64%)
• Food shops (62%)

The situation is worse for construction professionals, who are particularly affected: 88% of respondents in this sector currently find themselves with purchase orders signed on the basis of raw material prices much lower than current prices, which leads to a drop massive increase in their margin and for some, in their remuneration…

To offset the impact of these increases and maintain their activity and the employment of their employees, the leaders reacted. They are 83% to have had to increase their selling prices (but slightly so as not to lose customers, also impacted) while lowering their margins (51% of them) and sometimes even lowering their remuneration to maintain their viability. work tool (26%).

Finally, for those who have not yet taken any measures, 64% of them plan to act accordingly and 87% intend to increase their selling price in the coming weeks if the situation remains tense.

If the discount of 15 cents per liter on fuel prices is a first gesture, the Syndicat des Indépendants supports the construction of a real shield, protecting companies and respecting consumers. Marc Sanchez specifies: “What this study teaches us is that it has become illusory to rely on growth alone to absorb the costs created during the health crisis within the required timeframes. Sustainable and comprehensive measures must be taken. Six million companies, mobilized and standing despite the COVID, have been suffering for two years and are asking the State for concrete measures so that neither inflation nor the Ukrainian crisis sign the cessation of their activity and lead to the loss of employment of their employees. These new devices would not cost the state a penny:

• a legal extension of the repayment period of the PGE by at least two years
• the renewal of the mechanism for spreading the payment of the personal social charges of the business manager over 12 to 36 months”.

Marc Sanchez completes: “Finally, in the name of the purchasing power on which the sustainability of their activities depends, many of the participants in our survey indicate that the reduction in social charges would be fully passed on to the net remuneration of their employees. Proof that their objective is to live from their work and not to ask for subsidies. Candidates for the presidential election should take inspiration from these recommendations, those who seem to ignore 98% of employers in France”.

EMP Reimbursement and Resilience Plan

They are now almost half (45%) to have taken steps or plan to do so, to obtain an extension of the repayment period of their PGE. However, it must be noted that the system currently in force in the extension of Bruno Le Maire's announcements of last January is totally unsuitable and devoid of interest: the company must be on the verge of bankruptcy, listed in red in the Bank of France and must therefore give up any investment in the short and medium term.

As for the Resilience Plan, the observation is shared: 41% of the self-employed and VSEs believe that measures to increase household purchasing power would boost their activity against 31% who think the opposite.