The annual index on the state of SMEs is back, created by the Research Department of the NSA Group in collaboration with the Department of Business Sciences of the University of Bologna.
Presented in Milan by Gaetano Stio, President of the NSA Group, and by Prof. Massimiliano Marzo of the University of Bologna, the nsaPMIndex’21 summarizes a complex elaboration by concentrating communication on a few elements such as employees, growth, liquidity, investments, etc. using precise indicators, thus achieving the objective of making known, with synthetic clarity, the state of a sector of the Italian economy that represents 50% of GDP and over 80% of employment.
Compared to last year, the index, calculated on company balance sheet data for 2020, shows a drop from a level of 105.68 (on 2019 balance sheets) to a level of 102.99.
The economic trend for the year 2020, characterized by the pandemic, reverberates in the trend of the nsaPMIndex ’21 which shows a contraction essentially due to a large reduction in the margins of industrial companies, with the only exception of the construction sector , driven by the positive effects of the bonus 110.
The data show, in fact, that services, transport and trade are the most penalized sectors, while the construction sector is recording an important recovery. The manufacturing industry is substantially stable, with a sector index in slight contraction.
“The index is constructed by considering eight balance sheet indicators. The decline essentially reflects the worsening of liquidity which occurred during the lockdowns. Once again it is highlighted how the liquidity variable represents one of the fundamental drivers in the company performance ”stated Gaetano Stio.
According to Massimiliano Marzo, many issues remain open to try to allow the industrial sector the possibility of capturing the positive trend that is emerging in recent days: first of all the issue of taxation, very much felt also by individual businesses and VAT numbers, the role of the State in the coming years and banking regulation.
“On the subject of taxation – comments di Marzo – one of the very strong distortions is induced by the way in which the tax system is constructed: the system of advances and the minimum use of indirect taxation, obliges companies to manage their liquidity improperly and not adequate for company growth. From this point of view, a tax reform that at least allows companies not to get into debt to pay taxes is urgent and can no longer be postponed ”.
“With regard to the issue of banking regulation – continues Prof. Marzo – the phase following the 2008/2009 crisis saw an excess of regulation which also severely limited the transmission channel of money and, ultimately, also generated this excess monetary growth. Rethinking these aspects, also in order to prevent fintech from completely displacing the business model of banks, is one of the challenges for the coming years “.
Also during the event, the independent analysis carried out by PwC on the work of the Nsa Group was shown.
The analysis demonstrates, once again, the solidity and reliability of the Group which, with 49,903 operations managed for 34,619 SMEs, thanks to the synergy between digitalisation and the more than 300 Group resources, has disbursed 8 billion in loans to SMEs since 2007 to present.
In addition, despite the pandemic period, NSA has further reduced its handling times by digitizing all its processes and reaching, for some of its services such as 5Dayes, resolution times of 10 working days.
“The PwC study also confirms the quality of NSA’s customer portfolio with a default percentage well below the current market situation. This guarantees NSA full confidence on the part of the banks for which the credit risk and operational risks are confirmed to be very low. Requirements that enable NSA’s clients to obtain the best market conditions and financing benefits; we are therefore talking about below average rates, longer duration, medium-high loans and response times that are significantly lower than national standards ”concluded Stio.
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