Gwangju-Jeonnam SMEs November SBHI '78'... 1.8P↓ from Previous Month

Domestic Demand, Exports, Funding, and Employment Levels All 'Deteriorate'
Regional Headquarters of Korea Federation of SMEs, Economic Outlook Survey Results

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions were surveyed and found to have a somewhat 'negative' outlook on business conditions for November.

According to the 2024 November Regional SME Business Outlook Survey (SBHI) results announced on the 31st by the Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Headquarters of the Korea Federation of SMEs (Chairman Lim Kyung-jun), the business outlook SBHI was recorded at '78'. This represents a decrease of 1.8 points from the previous month and a significant drop of 5.0 points compared to the same period last year.

By region, Gwangju showed a decline to '72', down 5.6 points from the previous month (77.6), while Jeonnam showed a contrasting increase to '83.6', up 1.8 points from the previous month (81.8).

By industry, manufacturing scored 79.7, a slight decrease of 0.3 points from the previous month (80.0), and non-manufacturing also fell by 3.6 points to 75.8 from 79.4 the previous month.

Outlook by category mostly declined: domestic sales (78.4→75.1), export outlook (95.5→83.3), operating profit (74.4→73.4), and financial conditions (70.9→70). The employment level (90.0→91.3), which is a counter-trend indicator, was also expected to worsen compared to the previous month.

In the October survey on the main 'management difficulties' faced by SMEs in Gwangju and Jeonnam, the highest response rate was for sluggish domestic demand (47.8%), followed by rising labor costs (45.4%). The average operating rate of small and medium-sized manufacturers in Gwangju and Jeonnam in September this year was 69.9%, down 0.9% from the previous month (70.8%). Gwangju's rate was 69.4%, down 1.1 percentage points from the previous month (70.5%), and Jeonnam's was 70.4%, down 0.8 percentage points from the previous month (71.2%).

Meanwhile, this survey was conducted over five days from the 14th to the 18th, targeting 207 SMEs in Gwangju and Jeonnam (116 manufacturing and 91 non-manufacturing companies).

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