Sberbank disagreed with the government in the assessment of small and medium-sized businesses

18.3 million Russians are involved in small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which is 1 million people less than the government recorded last year, and a third less than the goal set by the national project for 2024. This was shown by a study by Sberbank based on anonymized data obtained from payment systems in all Russian regions, RBC writes .

Discrepancy. The Sberbank study does not cover Crimea and Sevastopol, where the state bank does not operate due to the threat of sanctions. But the absence of these regions cannot explain the difference with the government data: according to Raeks Analytics, no more than 130,000 people are employed in SMEs in them. Perhaps the difference is partly due to business closures : Last year, more than 290,000 businesses were opened in Russia, and more than 600,000 companies ceased operations.

Other figures. The SME sector in Russia as a whole provides 25.6% of jobs. The highest employment is in trade, with 31.4% of employees working in SMEs. Almost 15% falls on manufacturing industries, 10% - on construction. Some industries are run almost entirely by small businesses: for example, 95.6% of real estate employees work for SMEs. The smallest share is in public administration and education (less than 1%).

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Regions. The residents of St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region (37.5%), the Novosibirsk Region (34.8%), Moscow and the Moscow Region (34%) work most of all in small businesses. Least of all - in Chechnya and Ingushetia (2.7 and 2.9%).

Context. The national project for the development of entrepreneurship requires an increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses to 25 million people by 2024. The document specifies the base number of SMEs as 19.2 million people as of July 1, 2018. About how officials are trying to meet the targets for this national project, we wrote here .

At the same time, 84.4% of businessmen believe that doing business in Russia is unsafe. And 10% of entrepreneurs consider the best business plan for the next three years to wind down the business and close the company.