THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF ENTERPRISES IN THE TRADE SECTOR IN MONTENEGRO

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the financial enterprise performance in Montenegro. The analysis was conducted on a sample of 124 enteprises (small, medium and large) in the trade sector that has the largest share in the creation of Montenegrin gross domestic product (GDP). As the trade sector includes wholesale and retail trade, this paper focuses on the wholesale sector. The research compared the period before Covid-19, i.e. years 2018 and 2019, and the period during Covid-19, year 2020. The financial enterprise performance is discussed on the basis of analysis of liquidity, solvency, efficiency andprofitability. The results showed that the Covid-19 pandemic had negative impact on business operations of the enterprises in terms ofprofitability and efficiency, while solvency and liquidity were almost unchanged. The results showed that the Covid-19 pandemic had bad consequences for the company's business in terms of profitability and efficiency, while solvency and liquidity were almost unchanged. The contribution of this paper consists in assessing the impact of the health crisis on the operations of business entities in the trade sector, based on the ratio analysis of the financial statements of this sample. In addition to the above, the paper provides an overview of available data related to the analysis of the structure of the Montenegrin economy. This research emphasizes that more attention needs to be paid to the risks that external environmental uncertainty brings to small, medium and large enterprises and to help these enterprises anticipate risks when making business decisions.