In what industries and regions does small business operate. Census results

Continuous statistical monitoring of small and medium-sized businesses is designed to cover all officially registered small and medium-sized businesses – legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. Every five years, they are required to provide statisticians with reports on their activities. It is not advisable to conduct such a survey more often than once every five years, Rosstat explained to RBC. “This will put a serious burden on the shoulders of small and medium-sized businesses,” said Pavel Malkov, head of the service.

The first such survey covered 2010, the previous one showed results for 2015. The new census was held in April 2021, 2.7 million individual entrepreneurs and almost 2 million micro and small enterprises took part in it. Of these, about 80% turned out to be really active. “It is important for the state to know how small and micro enterprises, individual entrepreneurs live, what problems they face. Based on the information obtained during the economic census, government decisions and support programs will be made,” explained in Rosstat.

Small businesses are businesses that meet government criteria, including average headcount and income. A micro-enterprise is a legal entity with up to 15 employees and an income of up to 120 million rubles. per year, small – up to 100 people and up to 800 million rubles. IP, depending on these indicators, also refers to either micro or small enterprises (there are also individual entrepreneurs related to large businesses – RBC wrote about such in 2017). The register of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is maintained and regularly updated by the Federal Tax Service (FTS), and in theory it would be possible to update the results of the small business survey annually. However, the register of the Federal Tax Service is not representative enough for this, Rosstat specialists noted earlier.

Between the economic census, Rosstat monitors the performance of small and medium-sized businesses through sample surveys. In addition, statisticians use information from the SME register data, company reports, and other sources.

President Vladimir Putin in 2018 instructed the government to achieve an increase in the share of small and medium-sized businesses in the country’s economy – from the current 20 to 40% by 2025. Later, in the corresponding national project for 2020, an intermediate task was set – to bring the contribution of SMEs to GDP to 23.5%, but it was not achieved, including due to the pandemic.

Judging by sample surveys, in recent years small enterprises have been losing their share in the economy. According to RBC’s calculations based on Rosstat data, in the nine months of 2021 (the most recent indicators), small businesses sold goods and services in the amount of 21.4 trillion rubles, but their share in the turnover of all organizations reached a ten-year low of 11.4 %. The downward trend began in 2017, when the share of small businesses in the turnover of all companies was 17.9%. These indicators are relevant only for small businesses, excluding micro-businesses, while Rosstat has data on the turnover of small businesses, including micro-enterprises, only for 2019. In 2019, the turnover of microenterprises amounted to 24.3 trillion rubles.

It would be statistically incorrect to trace the dynamics of the situation of small businesses and individual entrepreneurs, comparing the data of the economic census, which gave a picture for 2020, and sample surveys for previous years and partly for 2021. Alexander Kalinin, President of the organization of small and medium-sized businesses Opora Rossii, is guided by the data of the Federal Tax Service to understand the changes. “In 2020, IP revenue in comparison with 2019, of course, decreased,” he told RBC. “There was a lockdown, restrictions, besides the global economic crisis, the economic decline was about 3%.” In addition, traditionally a lot of small businesses are represented in the service sector, where there were just anti-covid restrictions, the expert mentioned. According to him, IP revenue in 2020 fell by at least 7%.

“In 2021, recovery began, but in many ways inflationary, different by industry,” Kalinin recalled. “In 2021, we observed hyperinflation, and, on the one hand, we see a recovery growth of the economy, but on the other hand, commodity companies, digital companies, and pharmaceutical companies have profited.” At the end of the year, inflation amounted to 8.4%, which is twice the target of the Central Bank, but for many items (building materials, certain food products, etc.) the price increase was double-digit. In the monthly research small business “RSBI Index” for December, prepared by “Opora Rossii”, Promsvyazbank and Magram Market Research agency, it was noted that against the backdrop of problems with supplies and rising prices of suppliers, microbusiness is the most vulnerable.

Now state-owned companies and digital platforms are entering the traditional markets of individual entrepreneurs and small enterprises (for example, in retail trade), and this is a serious concern for SMEs, Kalinin argues. According to him, in two years the number of employees of small enterprises fell by 800 thousand. “This is due to the demographic decline, the subsidence of small businesses and the fact that many have changed the tax regime to the self-employed,” concluded the head of Opora Rossii.

The fact that the turnover of small enterprises has fallen was confirmed to RBC by Professor of the Department of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit of the Faculty of Finance and Banking of the RANEPA Yuri Yudenkov. “First of all, this was influenced by the coronavirus epidemic – they began to earn less,” he said. – Almost everyone notices a drop in turnover [представители малых предприятий и ИП] along with a reduction in wages.