70% of small firms hurt by rising oil prices, METI says

A hastily arranged government survey has found that 71.4 percent of about 1,500 small businesses have seen their earnings hurt by soaring oil prices, up from 65.6 percent in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

The percentage of companies that see a “serious impact” on their earnings reached 24.8 percent in the survey, which was conducted between late April and early May on 1,494 small businesses, compared with 18.1 percent in the previous poll in January, according to METI’s Small and Medium Enterprise Agency.

Japan Times