Milan, June 22, 2022 - In recent months, the rise in energy costs has significantly affected almost all SMEs in the country, especially following the unstable international economic and political situation. However, some industrial sectors have suffered more from the exponential increase in high utility bills: among these, particularly the hospitality and catering sector, which in the first quarter of 2022 recorded a peak incidence of energy costs of up to +400%.

This data was the result of an internal analysis carried out by Banca AideXa which, by analyzing the transactional data of a sample of client companies and comparing the data of energy costs incurred from January 2022 to date, was able to obtain a real-time picture of how much the bills are weighing on their turnover.

Compared to the last months of 2021, in this first half of the year, energy costs have come to weigh up to four times more, making the recovery of a sector that has particularly suffered the consequences of the pandemic period even more difficult.

The fact that these costs have such a strong impact on the turnover of SMEs in the HoReCa world paradoxically determines that, with the seasonal increase in demand for services, keeping up with demand is decidedly more expensive than before for entrepreneurs.

The same research also shows that this increase in costs has slightly stabilized at slightly lower levels today, but still shows no sign of flattening out.

In light of these analyses, which go to confirm and strengthen an already widely known situation, the need to establish further and structured lines of intervention to support the more than two hundred thousand SMEs in the territory should be even more highlighted, no longer focusing efforts solely on large industry.

In parallel with the increase in energy prices, there is also a growing need for companies to turn to financial interlocutors who respond quickly and with ad hoc solutions to rapid macroeconomic changes and those in their sector. The risk, otherwise, is a slowdown in the company's operations and a negative impact also from the point of view of turnover.

In this context, using transactional data as AideXa does to have real-time information on economic trends is a valuable tool to offer SMEs solutions that respond to their real liquidity needs, adapting quickly to changes in the environment and sector. With a dynamic method of analysis like ours, we manage to give the right answers at the right time.