사진 확대

It was found that one in four small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners are currently burdened with the level of debt.

According to a survey of 500 SMEs (377 small businesses and 123 small businesses) conducted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business from the 7th to the 15th, 26.4% of companies said they were "burdened" by the current level of debt burden, which was 6.0 percentage points higher than "no burden" (20.4%).

By company size, 28.1% of small businesses and small business owners said they felt a debt burden, which was 7.0 percentage points higher than that of mid-sized companies (21.1%).

When asked about the period during which companies can run their business if the current debt burden continues, "more than two years" was the highest at 54.5%. The number of small businesses and small business owners who answered "less than a year" was 27.4%, more than three times higher than that of middle and large companies (7.7%).

When asked whether the principal and interest were overdue within the last year, 1.8% said they had "experience in arrears," but 20.0% said they had "no experience in arrears but had a crisis of delinquency." All companies that responded that they had experience in delinquency were small businesses and small businesses, and 24.2% of small businesses and small businesses that experienced delinquency or had a crisis of delinquency were 9.6% higher than those of small businesses (14.6%).

Among the companies that responded that the level of debt burden was "burdened," "decreased sales and deteriorated operating profit" was the highest at 67.4% as the main reason for the debt burden (multiple responses). It was followed by "high loan interest rates" (37.9%) and "rising raw material prices" (34.8%).

Among the companies that responded that the level of debt burden was "burdened," 58.3% of them said "saving their own costs by reducing investment and labor costs" as measures taken to ease the debt burden (multiple responses). Next, 'no countermeasures' (22.0%) followed by 'using policy finance' (20.5%).

Among the most necessary policies (multiple responses) to ease the debt burden, "expanding policy finance" was the highest at 58.8%, followed by "expansion of maturity and deferment of repayment" (52.2%) and "reimplementation of the high-interest interest support system" (43.2%).

Meanwhile, the survey was conducted before the Bank of Korea's Monetary Policy Committee decided to raise its key interest rate on the 16th.

Lee Min-kyung, head of the policy division at the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, said, "With the possibility of increasing the burden of financial costs due to the increase in the benchmark interest rate, the financial sector should also actively make autonomous win-win financial efforts for small and medium-sized enterprises and small businesses by extending their maturities and delaying repayment," adding, "The role of policy finance as a safety valve needs to be strengthened, such as expanding the supply of policy finance and providing liquidity to vulnerable companies, so that temporary financial difficulties do not lead to delinquency or insolvency."