the number of enterprises in the sector has exceeded the pre-Covid level

The number of enterprises in the SME sector has exceeded the pre-Covid level, according to the data of the state register. The number of medium-sized companies is also growing: today there are 18.59 thousand of them in the register, which is 5% higher than in 2022, Tatyana Ilyushnikova, deputy head of the Ministry of Economy, said yesterday. The problem of the sector, however, remains the high proportion of micro-enterprises that are mainly engaged in trade and services – 96% (5.6 million entities) of all SMEs. In small business, as stated earlier in the Federal Tax Service, only 3% of them go (see Kommersant of May 30).

Quantitative indicators, which in recent years have been guided by the authorities with state support for SMEs and which now inspire them with some optimism, do not give a complete picture of what is happening. Work to achieve qualitative indicators is still underway – we recall that due to sanctions challenges, the authorities began to see SMEs as suppliers of both goods and technologies (see Kommersant of June 9).

As follows from the latest data from Rosstat (not including micro-enterprises), the volume of sales in “trading” small enterprises, despite their involvement in the work to increase parallel imports, in monetary terms decreased from 16.6 trillion rubles. in 2021 to 15.8 trillion rubles. in 2022 The share of such companies in the total turnover of the sector decreased by 4.2% to 51.5%. “Production” companies managed to increase their share from 44.2% in 2021 to 48.4% in 2022: in monetary terms, their sales increased from 13.2 trillion to 14.9 trillion rubles. (and maintained an upward trend in the first quarter of 2023), which is explained by the increase in partnerships between large and small companies in import substitution, as well as, probably, massive government stimulus to the economy. As a result, the total turnover of SMEs slightly increased: from 29.9 trillion rubles. in 2021 to 30.8 trillion rubles. in 2022

Meanwhile, over the past year, the sector has faced new challenges: the number of people employed in small businesses, according to Rosstat, fell in 2022 (see chart) and continued to decline in the first quarter of 2023: some employees were mobilized, some left the country . The shortage of personnel has led to an increase in competition for specialists between small and large companies, which the former lose. However, in some industries, the number of employees continues to grow: the most noticeable growth is recorded in medicine and IT.

Christina Borovikova