Impact of COVID 19 Pandemic on Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMEs) in the GCC

Author

Omar Ismael Al-Sanjary
Mahmoud Khalifa

Abstract
In all over the word, COVID 19 has created uncertainty and panic situation in almost all areas of
life. Not only financial position of all countries has been badly affected but also internal and
external social lives have also disturbed badly. If we talk about Bahrain and its economy, all large
scale businesses in general and small and medium sized businesses have dropped up to their
alarming position. Major victims of the COVID-19 outbreak are micro, small, and medium-sized
businesses (SMEs). This article aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on these
businesses and provide policy recommendations to help SMEs in reducing business losses and
survive through the crisis. The study adopted an exploratory methodology with comprehensively
reviewing the available literature in the relevant field. Further, to add empirical evidence, we
collected data from some Bahraini SMEs by administering an online questionnaire. The data were
analyzed through descriptive statistics. The results indicate that most of the participating
enterprises have been severely affected and they are facing several issues such as financial, supply
chain disruption, decrease in demand, reduction in sales and profit, among others. Besides, over
75% of enterprises were neither prepared nor have any plan to handle such a situation. The
findings of our study are consistent with previous studies. Based on the results of the research,
different policy recommendations were proposed to ease the adverse effects of the outbreak on
SMEs.
Keywords: Small and Medium Sized Businesses (SMSs, GCC, COVID-19)

Download Full Article