Pandemic Restrictions Are Over: An Overview of Changes in the Main Economic Indicators of Enterprises. Part 2. Investment activity of enterprises and changes in the output structure

Abstract

The article considers several aspects of the investment activity of enterprises (the involvement of enterprises in investment activity, the effectiveness of investments, the payback period, the availability of investment loans, product and technological innovations and changes in the structure of output). The main target is to compare various characteristics of the investment behavior of enterprises during the period of COVID restrictions with the situation before their introduction and immediately after their removal. Contrary to popular expectations, COVID restrictions did not cause the collapse of the enterprises’ investment activity. At the first stage of the pandemic, this activity stabilized, and then began to grow. COVID had a smaller negative effect on the investment activity of industrial enterprises than the crises of 1998–1999, 2008–2009 and 2014–2015. During the period of restrictions, the effectiveness of investments turned out to be lower than the previous highs, but in general it corresponded to the level of long-term averages. Industrial enterprises traditionally face great difficulties in obtaining investment loans. In this regard, the isolation of enterprises from the banking sector was increasing during the COVID period, but this negative trend appeared earlier, before COVID.