Europe’s Businesses Work Overtime, but Are They Booming? 

歐洲店家加班趕工，經濟再現繁榮？

With shops, hairdressers and other places opening again across Europe, business owners are working overtime to ensure they will make up the lost income after two months of closure. But few believe this spike in pent-up business signals a post-crisis boom.

       為了彌補過去 2 個月停業以來的營業額損失，歐洲許多商家、髮廊及其他場所紛紛重新開店，經營者也大力加班。儘管受疫情箝制的生意反彈回升，卻只有少數人看好經濟於疫情後會快速回溫。

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Europe's Businesses Work Overtime, but Are They Booming?
VOA News｜Economy & Business
May 26, 2020 02:23 AM (source)

Europe's Businesses Work Overtime, but Are They Booming? 

歐洲店家加班趕工，經濟再現繁榮？

May 26, 2020 02:23 AM

Marthe van der Wolf

Amsterdam, Netherlands—

With shops, hairdressers and other places opening again across Europe, business owners are working overtime to ensure they will make up the lost income after two months of closure. But few believe this spike in pent-up business signals a post-crisis boom.

Wils Wolvers — whose salon outside of The Hague has been operating for the past 14 years — got 1,500 bookings in the days after it was announced he could reopen. After being closed for two months, he and his team are working around the clock to keep up.

"We had to put in screens in between the washroom units so we could still wash people or else they will be sitting next to each other. And between our stations where we cut and color, we also have screens. Normally we could have five or six people at a time. But we can do half of it. So that's why we're open for seven days, including nights,” he explained.

Wolvers is happy to be fully booked for the foreseeable future but doubts the bookings will make up for the loss of income when the salon was closed.

Government relief money helped his business pay for employees' salaries during lockdown, but he still had to spend his part of his savings on fixed costs, such as insurance and mortgage.

Across Europe, shops and restaurants have either opened or are preparing to open again. Restaurants are getting many reservations and people are lining up to enter non-essential shops. But the social distancing measures mean the businesses can only operate below normal capacity.

 Research fellow at the European Economic Think Thank [sic], Bruegel Simone Tagliapietra, says that despite lockdown measures easing, consumers also are spending less.

"New data just released by the European Central Bank has shown that savings in Europe in the month of March are far beyond the average level of savings in the past years. People are simply saving, putting money aside. They don't know if a second wave of the contagion will come. They are unsure about the safety of their job, so they don't spend,” said Tagliapietra.

Small and medium-sized businesses make up 99 percent of all enterprises in the EU. There are 25 million of them, and they employ more than two-thirds of the EU's workforce. They are the backbone of the EU's economy, but also are the most vulnerable to external shocks like a pandemic.

A survey done by SMEunited, an umbrella organization for Europe's small and medium sized enterprises, shows that half of those businesses had a 50-percent loss of income. This number climbed up to 80 percent in countries harder affected by the coronavirus pandemic, like Italy and Spain.

Secretary General of SMEunited, Véronique Willems, says that businesses have been very creative during the coronavirus lockdown to stay afloat, but still need support.

"What we've noticed for the national support packages put in place, as well as for the European measures that were put in place, was that they didn't reach the entrepreneurs as fast as the entrepreneurs had hoped. We feel it's very important is a continuation of the emergency measures where needed,” she said.

The European Union is debating plans for a massive economic recovery fund that includes grants, loans, and guarantees that could total more than $2 trillion. France and Germany presented their own plans last week.

為了彌補過去 2 個月停業以來的營業額損失，歐洲（Europe）許多商家、髮廊及其他場所紛紛重新開店，經營者也大力加班。儘管受疫情箝制的(pent-up)生意反彈回升(spike，註 1)，卻只有少數人看好經濟於疫情後會快速回溫(boom ，註 2)。

威爾斯．沃福（Wils Wolvers）在海牙（The Hague）市中心外經營 14 年的髮廊，在公告重新開幕後，幾天內湧入 1500 名客人預約，經過 2 個月的休業，他與他的團隊夥伴日以繼夜(around the clock)工作。

他解釋說：「我們必須在洗頭區裝上隔板，這樣才能幫客人洗頭，否則他們坐得太近，另外理髮區及染髮區，我們也都裝上隔板，過去通常一次可以同時做 5 到 6 組客人，但現在只能一半，這也是為什麼我們天天開門，晚上也營業。」

沃福雖很高興見到可預見的(foreseeable，註 3)將來髮廊預約額滿，但不確定這次的生意是否能彌補過去兩個月以來的損失。

封城(lockdown)期間，政府發放的救濟金幫助他至少付得出員工的薪水，但他仍需動用一部分的個人存款在固定開支上，像是保險及房貸(mortage)。

歐洲的商店和餐廳陸續重新營業或是準備開張，餐廳已漸漸收到許多預訂，許多民眾前往非必要的(non-essential)商店排隊，但因應社交距離措施，意味著商家的生產力(capacity，註 4) 無法達到以往的正常值。

比利時智庫布魯蓋爾（Bruegel）研究員西蒙．塔格理皮特拉（Simone Tagliapietra）表示，儘管封城政策鬆綁，消費者購買力仍是下降。

塔格理皮特拉說：「歐洲經濟智庫剛發表的數據顯示，歐洲 3月份的儲蓄金額遠遠超過(far beyond)過去幾年來的平均水準，民眾只有存錢，將錢暫時擱在一旁，他們不知道疫情(contagion，註 5)是否會捲土重來，也不確定能不能保住工作飯碗，所以才選擇不花錢。」

歐盟（European Union）區內 99% 的公司(enterprise，註 6 )都是中小企業，總數高達 2500 萬間，有超過三分之二的員工(workforce)是來自歐盟區，它們作為歐盟經濟的後盾(backbone，註 7)，遭遇新冠肺炎等外力衝擊時卻完全無法招架。

一項由歐洲中小企業聯盟（SMEunited）所做的調查顯示：這些企業內有一半的虧損都高達 50% ，義大利（Italy）和西班牙（Spain）等受到新冠肺炎疫情嚴重影響的國家，數字甚至來到 80% 。

該聯盟秘書長維羅尼卡．威樂（Véronique Willems）提到，許多企業為了在封城期間維持經營(afloat，註 8)，大力施展創意招數，但仍需要得到更多協助。

她說：「就目前我們所知道的國家紓困方案以及歐盟所採取的措施，都難以快速達到企業家所期盼的需求，我們認為延續(continuation)的紓困政策才是目前重要的。」

歐盟目前正在討論設立一筆龐大的經濟復甦基金，金額超過 2 兆元，包括補助金、貸款以及保證金，德（Germany）法（France）兩國上星期都分別擬出各國的計畫。