According to a new Ai Group report released today – Business experiences in 2020 and outlook for 2021 – despite the partial recovery underway and the considerable adjustments made over the course of 2020, most Australian businesses continue to report negative impacts as a result of COVID-19.
Looking to 2021, most businesses are set to retain at least some of the operational and workplace changes adopted in response to the pandemic. They are, however, acutely aware of weak demand for their goods and services. Further, despite the introduction of tax incentives for capital expenditure, most businesses have no plans to invest in the near term and non-mining business investment in 2020-21 is currently anticipated to be between five and ten percent lower than in 2019-20.
In releasing the report, Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said: "The economic recovery to date has been led by decisive policy measures on the part of the federal, state and territory governments and the Reserve Bank. While businesses are picking themselves up and bringing people back to work, many still worry that what we are seeing may be merely a bounce rather than the onset of self-sustaining momentum.
"The notion that COVID and its impacts will magically disappear when the calendar clicks over to 2021 is a fallacy. We are going to have to work harder than ever on rebuilding and regenerating our economy at a time of continued intense domestic pressure and increased global uncertainty and volatility.
"The next couple of months will be critical in signalling whether higher household confidence translates into enough additional spending to convince businesses to continue to lift employment and to commit to additional investment.
"At the top of the risks to our economy are the federal government reducing or removing fiscal support from business and employment too early and the spreading geopolitical trade problems with China. State and territory governments will need to get their infrastructure pipelines flowing and the federal government in particular will need to be ready with fiscal reinforcements if private sector demand does not accelerate.
"Ai Group's latest report continues our monthly insights into the business experience of COVID-19 and finds that in November 84% of businesses reported continuing negative impacts from COVID-19 with the top five negative impacts being:
"Businesses have continued to adapt to the COVID-19 shock with the top five responses adopted in November being:
"The report maps the changing impacts on and responses of business over the COVID-19 period since February 2020 and highlights the dominant place that weak demand for goods and services has among business concerns with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19," Mr Willox said.
The full report Business experiences in 2020 and outlook for 2021 is available here.
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