The business sentiment of small and micro businesses in South Korea improved in the second quarter, although it remained lower than the pre-pandemic level.

A survey conducted by the Korea Federation of Credit Guarantee Foundations showed Monday that the business survey index covering 2,183 small businesses reached 47.4, up 30.7 points from the first quarter. An index above 100 means more are optimistic.

The BSI in the first quarter plunged to 16.7 from 57.7 in the fourth quarter of 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the companies, 21.3 percent said they are coping with the pandemic woes by downsizing, followed by workforce cuts (20.7 percent), temporary shutdown (16.4 percent), business shutdown (14.6 percent), while other factors included longer operation hours (6.2 percent). 

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)