The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (May 10) the results of the Monthly Survey on Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) for April 2024.
The current diffusion index (DI) on business receipts amongst SMEs decreased from 45.5 in March 2024 in the contractionary zone to 43.8 in April 2024, whereas the one-month's ahead (i.e. May 2024) outlook DI on business receipts was 46.3. Analysed by sector, the current DIs on business receipts for all the surveyed sectors dropped in April 2024 as compared with previous month, particularly for the restaurants (from 41.4 to 38.3) and logistics (from 44.6 to 41.7).
The current DI on new orders for the import and export trades decreased from 47.4 in March 2024 to 46.4 in April 2024, whereas the outlook DI on new orders in one month's time (i.e. May 2024) was 45.9.
Commentary
A Government spokesman said that overall business sentiment among SMEs and their expectations on the business situation in one month's time softened in April. The overall employment situation also eased somewhat.
The spokesman added that while the complicated external environment would continue to affect business sentiment in the near term, further growth of the economy should render support. The Government will monitor the situation closely.
Further information
The Monthly Survey on Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises aims to provide a quick reference, with minimum time lag, for assessing the short-term business situation faced by SMEs. SMEs covered in this survey refer to establishments with fewer than 50 persons engaged. Respondents were asked to exclude seasonal fluctuations in reporting their views. Based on the views collected from the survey, a set of diffusion indices (including current and outlook diffusion indices) is compiled. A reading above 50 indicates that the business condition is generally favourable, whereas that below 50 indicates otherwise. As for statistics on the business prospects of prominent establishments in Hong Kong, users may refer to the publication entitled "Report on Quarterly Business Tendency Survey" released by the C&SD.
The results of the survey should be interpreted with care. The survey solicits feedback from a panel sample of about 600 SMEs each month and the survey findings are thus subject to sample size constraint. Views collected from the survey refer only to those of respondents on their own establishments rather than those on the respective sectors they are engaged in. Besides, in this type of opinion survey on expected business situation, the views collected in the survey are affected by the events in the community occurring around the time of enumeration, and it is difficult to establish precisely the extent to which respondents' perception of the business situation accords with the underlying trends. For this survey, main bulk of the data were collected around the last week of the reference month.
More detailed statistics are given in the "Report on Monthly Survey on the Business Situation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises". Users can browse and download the publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1080015&scode=300).
Users who have enquiries about the survey results may contact Industrial Production Statistics Section of the C&SD (Tel: 3903 7246; email: sme-survey@censtatd.gov.hk).
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