The coronavirus (Covid-19) is expected to have devastating effects on Acre's already struggling economy and commerce. With the announcement by the Finance Department that Acre's revenue in April could fall by 20%.
Although the outlook is optimistic, the scenario for the state's businesspeople is still more worrying.
Acre Trade
According to the president of the Acre Commercial Association (Acisa), Celestino Bento, due to the decree that determined that only essential services would operate, the drop in sales of services and products should register a margin greater than 40%.
"We are now dealing with emergency situations. We are now working on the issue of ICMS, IPTU, IPVA and installments so that they can be extended for a longer period of time.
I believe that the initial impact on the State will be 40% in terms of affecting sales and this will continue for the next three months with sales down and the risk of unemployment increasing”, highlighted Bento.
Another person who sees a less than encouraging scenario is the president of the Federation of Industries of Acre (Fieac), José Adriano. According to the industry representative, the construction industry “was already struggling, but with the slowdown caused by the pandemic, the situation has gotten worse.
Blackout Moment
“That is why we are calling on the government to speed up bidding processes during this period. In the private sector, we noticed a momentary blackout due to the publication of the decree, but it has returned to normal numbers,” argued Adriano.
The president of Fieac also stated that he agrees with Acisa's analysis perspective as retail trade suffered the greatest impact.
Adriano also highlighted that in the industrial production of State, the biggest concern is with the import of raw materials from other centers, but we are still working with stocks acquired before the pandemic.
"But it is worrying if it worsens. Initially, we estimated the reduction in industrial production in these 10 days to be around 20% so far," he stressed.
Therefore, it was found that if some measures by the federal and state governments are not implemented to help the economy and the scenario continues with this negative expectation, the number of unemployed people in the State will reach numbers never seen before.