Gwangju and Jeonnam SMEs' June Business Outlook Weakens... Down 9.5p from Previous Month

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The business outlook for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Gwangju and Jeonnam for June declined compared to the previous month.

On the 31st, according to the Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Headquarters of the Korea Federation of SMEs, a survey of 209 local SMEs on the Small Business Health Index (SBHI), an index measuring business outlook, showed a score of 90.0, down 9.5 points from the previous month (99.5).

Compared to the same month last year (89.2), the figure rose by 0.8 points.

By region, Gwangju was forecasted at 88.7, down 9.9 points from the previous month (98.6), and Jeonnam was at 91.3, down 9.2 points from last month (100.5).

By industry, manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors scored 91.7 and 88.2 respectively, decreasing by 9.8 points and 9.5 points compared to the previous month.

An SBHI score above 100 indicates that more companies have a positive outlook on business conditions, while a score below 100 indicates more companies have a negative outlook.

Except for exports, which remained the same as the previous month (100.0 → 100.0), all other categories saw a decline in the business index, including domestic sales (97.6 → 90.0), operating profit (91.7 → 86.1), and financial conditions (89.6 → 87.1).

The main management difficulties faced by companies were led by rising raw material prices (56.5%), followed by sluggish domestic demand (49.3%), rising labor costs (48.8%), excessive competition among companies (45.9%), and increased logistics costs and transportation difficulties (34.9%).

The average operating rate of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Gwangju and Jeonnam was 70.4%, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous month (71.1%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.