Dynamics of oil price shocks in Latin American stock markets during global turbulence: A nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs in Georgia, identify the challenges of SMEs in pandemic conditions, and analyze government economic policy measures. For this purpose, 102 small and medium entrepreneurs from different regions of Georgia were interviewed. The survey was conducted by sending a questionnaire through digital channels. The results were processed using data analysis, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and presented graphically. As a result, key challenges and development directions that are typical for SMEs operations in Georgia during the pandemic were identified. For 60.8% of surveyed SME owners, lockdown is the main challenge. Sales volume of 45.1% of SMEs decreased. In addition, 39.3% of the surveyed SME owners increased the innovative capabilities of a company and 37.2% increased the sales volume of a company through digital channels. The main challenge of the pandemic, lockdown, gave impetus to a change in entrepreneurial behavior. In a pandemic, entrepreneurial activity has become more favorable through digital channels. During the pandemic, there is a need to continue the government’s program of tax incentives and subsidies for SMEs. In addition, the government should promote education in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology.

The Crimea annexation and the military aggression of the Russian Federation, which first began in some territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014 and escalated into a full-scale war on February 24, 2022, resulted in heavy losses of life and a humanitarian crisis, exacerbating economic, political and social instability. To restore Ukraine’s economy, all businesses, including hospitality (hotel and restaurant business) sector, should continue functioning, though it is a challenging but crucial task. The paper aims to analyze the state of the hospitality market in the current war conditions in Ukraine and assess the possibilities of its restoration and development. An online survey was conducted among 282 representatives of the hospitality business in Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, and Zakarpattia regions. Based on the results, in 2022, almost 23% of hospitality industry representatives suspended their activities, and 54% functioned only partially. Many surveyed hotels and restaurants (36%) have gradually changed and adapted their business strategies. For more than half of the hospitality representatives, expenses increased by 20-50%, and profits dropped by more than 20%. The critical consequences of the full-scale war for the Ukrainian hospitality market are as follows: disruption of supply chains, reduction in consumers’ purchasing power, changes in consumer demand, shortage of certain types of products, shortage of personnel, and business unprofitability.

This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the increase in bad credits at conventional commercial banks in Indonesia. The data used in this study are secondary data sourced from the Ministry of Health and from the Financial Services Authority (OJK), each of which consists of 50 data samples. The data analysis technique used in this study is simple regression analysis to determine the magnitude of the influence of COVID-19 on non-performing loans. The results of the data analysis show that COVID-19 has a significant effect on non-performing loans, and the COVID-19 variable can be used as an external indicator of the increase in non-performing loans for commercial banks in Indonesia. The implication of the research is that other researchers can make COVID-19 an external indicator of an emergency beyond human ability that can affect the level of non-performing loans. For banking, this study can be used as a reference when considering credit risk management policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acknowledgment
The researchers are grateful to University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa for financial support. In addition, the authors sincerely apologize for the errors and mistakes found in this paper.