Part 1 of the NAB SME Bushfire Impact Survey Results has been released.
Key findings from the report include:
- The impact of the bushfires has been widespread – with around 2 in 3 SMEs indicating their businesses have been directly or indirectly impacted. But the impact has been much greater for some than others – around 7% said the fires had a ‘significant’ impact. Not surprisingly, more SMEs located in areas vulnerable to bushfire risk were impacted (9 in 10) than in non-vulnerable areas (5 in 10), as were businesses located in rural towns, in NSW, SA and VIC.
- While bushfire conditions have now improved, around 7 in 10 SMEs expect the fires to continue impacting their business in some way in the next 3 months (and just over 6 in 10 in the next 12 months). But these numbers are significantly higher for SMEs in vulnerable bushfire areas.
- By industry, the highest number who expect to be ‘significantly’ impacted in the next 3 months are in Transport/Storage, Utilities and Construction, but Manufacturing (14%) and Agriculture (11%) firms expect to be hardest hit in 12 months’ time.
To read the full results download the report.
