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60 pct small businesses report decreasing sales in Canada

Xinhua News,OTTAWA
2020-03-25 06:01

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At least 60 percent of Canada's small businesses have reported a significant drop in sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) on Tuesday.

The CFIB, an organization that promotes the interests of small businesses in Canada and represents over 110,000 members, surveyed more than 11,000 small businesses starting on March 20.

According to the result of the survey, out of the businesses that reported a decrease in sales, 38 percent said that revenues were down by more than 75 percent since early January 2020.

The survey also found that 55 percent of businesses are partially or entirely shut down, and 25 percent of businesses have already laid off all of their staff.

"More than half of small firms have begun laying off staff, with a quarter reporting they have already been forced to lay off their entire workforce," Dan Kelly, president of CFIB, said in a statement.

"At this rate, the only way to prevent massive additional unemployment is for government to introduce a much larger wage subsidy program," he added.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada was 2,647 with 26 deaths as of 6:00 p.m. local time.
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