Over the past month, Czech managers have become far less optimistic about the prospects for a rapid return to normality. A survey carried out by PwC in March found that 90 percent believed that if the pandemic ended quickly, their business would get back on track within three months. A month later, the same survey found that just 56 percent believed this while 12 percent predicted the process would take more than one year. The same survey found that German companies were far less pessimistic, with 20 percent predicting they would see falls in neither sales nor profits. “In Germany, there’s a clear plan and businesses there believe in their state institutions which behave predictably and transparently,” Petr Smutný, a partner at PwC told iDnes.cz. He added that the mood is sour in most of the 21 countries that PwC carried out the survey in. “The impact on companies is huge and unprecedented,” he said. “Factories of the biggest producers have shut down, supply chains have been disrupted and demand is frozen,” he said.
