Seven out of ten entrepreneurs are affected by the lack of a functioning Government, high inflation and economic instability, while around 10% are considering downsizing or even closing their businesses, according to a survey by SME Romania, presented by the president of the organization, Florin Jianu.
The research was conducted between May 15-22 among more than 2,000 entrepreneurs in sectors such as services, trade, manufacturing, HoReCa, construction, transport and agriculture.
According to the quoted source, the main problems reported are the increase in the costs of raw materials, energy and fuels, the decrease in sales and the lack of resources for investments, and the entrepreneurs demand the reduction of labor taxation, VAT and dividend tax, as well as measures to de-bureaucratize and stimulate investments.
“A bad news for the next period is that the minimum wage in the economy will increase from July 1, 2026 to 4,325 gross lei per country. The bad news is that the entrepreneurs declare that there will be price increases in the future, that the prices will continue to rise, that the staff will be reduced and, attention, something that did not appear on our radar, in our research: almost 10% of the surveyed entrepreneurs declare that they will close the companies. This, I confess, is a first, it did not appear in our previous analyzes (…) To the question ‘How is the activity of your company affected, considering the devaluation of the leu during this period?’, 80% of the respondents stated that the costs of production and provision of services have already increased, what we continue to see, that the volume of production and services provided has decreased and, attention, in third place, 23.2% declare that there will be layoffs of employees”, mentioned Florin Jianu, during a press conference.
According to him, inflation, economic instability and the lack of a functional Government affect 74.2% of entrepreneurs, who complain about rising costs, falling sales and a lack of resources for investment, while only 1.9% say they have no problems.
“The current socio-political context, with the lack of a functioning Government, with a record inflation rate and with this situation of insecurity and instability, means that, to a greater or lesser extent, 74.2% of our respondents are affected by this situation. The main problems they are currently facing are mainly the increase in the cost of raw materials and services used, the increase in the price of fuels and natural gas, the increase in the price of energy, but also two issues that are not related of taxation, namely the decrease of sales and the lack of financial resources, respectively, the lack of labor force. Each of these answers with regard to the main problems registered a percentage higher than 50%. Attention, the statistical error being, in general, of plus/minus 3%, we can conclude that almost the entire economy, if not the whole economy of Romania, is affected at the moment”, added Florin Jianu.
The entrepreneurs ask the future Government to reduce labor taxation, dividend tax and VAT, along with measures to reduce budget expenses, increase the absorption of European funds and stimulate investments in the economy, added the president of IMM Romania.
“The first three problems that entrepreneurs expect the future Government to solve show one thing, which is that entrepreneurs are suffocated by taxes and fees. They expect the reduction of taxation on the labor force by 5 percentage points, the reduction of the tax on dividends, as it was before at 5%, the reduction of VAT or the return to the previous VAT. Also, the reduction of budget expenses, the increase in the absorption of European funds and investments in infrastructure and in the real economy are issues on which the future Government should solve quickly, in the understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises”, said Florin Jianu.
In his opinion, the increase in VAT to 11%, respectively 21%, is also felt “by the decrease in the volume of services and products sold, by the increase in the prices of products and services with the value of the VAT increase and by delays in receipts due to the lack of liquidity”.
“Only 1.4% of entrepreneurs declare that they have increased their receipts during this period. So, with all these increases, with all these price increases, receipts have not increased during this period. This shows us that the solution is not, in fact, the increase of VAT and the increase of fees and taxes”, he added.
