Companies are showing signs of fragility. Only 32% of them now hope for an improvement in their overall situation in the 2nd quarter of 2022. For 38% of them, their cash position is deteriorating, due in particular to an increase in late payments or payment incidents.
Difficulties in the supply of raw materials, which affect more than half of companies (56%), contribute to worsening the situation. It should be noted that the vast majority (90%) of companies feel that their suppliers are taking advantage of the current situation to increase their prices, without any real justification.
Inflation, which affects almost all companies (90%), leads to half of them (53%) increasing the cost price by more than 10%. A third of them (31%) claim not to be able to transfer this increase to their selling price.
Unsurprisingly, for nearly half (45%) of the executives surveyed, inflation will have a significant impact on their 2022 results, which will more than halve or fall into the red.
In this context, the cost of energy weighs more and more heavily on companies, with one in ten (9%) even going so far as to consider stopping their activity due to the rise in energy prices. It is true that in 2021 energy only exceeded 3% of turnover for 21% of them, whereas it will be 60% in 2023! This gives an idea of the scale of the current crisis.
It is therefore all the more imperative to take into account the 13% of business leaders unable to meet their repayment deadlines for the loan guaranteed by the State. A spread of 4 additional years is approved by 99% of companies. The government needs to listen.
In any case, the time is therefore particularly badly chosen to increase local taxation, an increase which nevertheless affects seven companies (70%) out of ten. Worse still, nine out of ten respondents (91%) fear an increase in the CFE in 2023.