Structural and Dynamic Analysis of Business Activity of Small and Medium-Sized Business in Regional Economy (Based on Volgograd Region)

Abstract

State regulation of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) is an important direction of the economic policy of modern Russia, but its effectiveness is still insufficient. For Volgograd region showing signs of depression, the development of SMEs is of particular importance. In April 2019, by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, indicators of the development of regional SMEs were included in the criteria for evaluating the activities of governors. At the same time, monitoring of SME functioning is difficult due to the underdevelopment of the system for accounting and analyzing relevant indicators. Therefore, the analysis of business activity of SMEs for assessing the effectiveness of supporting this sector for improving its regulation is an urgent scientific and practical problem. This article shows a structural-dynamic analysis of business activity of the SME sector of Volgograd Region based on the data of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) for 2010 and 2014–2015. The authors reveal that in the region the rates of development of the SME sector (in general) and its agrarian subsector (in particular) corresponds to the targets of the state strategic planning. In the agrarian-bioresource sector, the turnover of SMEs in real terms increased over three years by 60% (from the level of 2014), which significantly exceeds the growth in both GRP (15%) and the turnover of the SME sector as a whole (46%). In other industries, the SME development needs to be accelerated. The task solution will be promoted by such measures as: harmonizing the regulation of SMEs with other areas of economic policy; creating a single integrated digital platform to monitor and support the sector development; modernizing the tax system; developing rural cooperation.