PwC survey: 73% of PNG business leaders expect revenue decline this year
Due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, 73% of PNG business leaders surveyed are expecting their revenue to decline this year. Close to half (41%) expect a reduction of between 20% to 50%.
Unsurprisingly, those in the tourism and hospitality sector are likely to be hit even harder, forecasting a 50% to 80% decrease in revenue.
These survey responses are unsettling. The PNG economy was already facing headwinds ahead of COVID-19, and as if that wasn’t enough, since then we’ve also seen the dramatic fall of the oil price. If the survey sentiments are more broadly shared, then the economy, businesses and the workforce face a challenging time ahead. It shouldn’t therefore be underestimated the level of intervention, some of which we are already seeing, to support businesses, as they look to underwrite their business and the livelihoods of their workforce.
We have observed many governments around the world expecting to inject, on average, 2% of GDP on fiscal stimulus measures to offset the economic shock of COVID-19. To date, the PNG Government has requested for K860m from its development partners to support its COVID-19 response. This equates to approximately 1% of PNG’s forecasted GDP for 2020. The question on everyone’s mind is, how will these funds be utilised and will this be enough?
These data points are from a recent survey that we conducted to understand how PNG businesses are responding to COVID-19.
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