Rising inflation continues to be the most frequently expected short-term obstacle for both rural (60.7 per cent) and urban (57.6 per cent) businesses, according to a report released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday.
Statistics Canada
The next three top obstacles for rural businesses were the rising cost of inputs (56.0 per cent), transportation costs (45.6 per cent) and rising interest rates and debt costs (44.8 per cent), all of which were reported more frequently by rural businesses than urban ones, said the federal agency.
“Among rural businesses that expected rising interest rates and debt costs to be a challenge over the next three months, over two-fifths (43.8 per cent) also expected these increases to result in higher selling prices for their goods and services over the same period,” said StatsCan.
“Approximately three-quarters (74.7 per cent) of all rural businesses reported that their revenues in 2022 were the same or higher compared with 2021, and 7.0 per cent said that their revenues had fallen by 25 per cent or more over that one-year period. Nearly half (47.1 per cent) of rural businesses expected to increase the wages paid to staff over the next 12 months.”
Top four obstacles for rural businesses over the next three months, by rural and urban businesses
The report said 25.3 per cent of rural businesses planned to adopt one or more new technologies, such as security software tools (12.1 per cent), collaboration tools (11.2 per cent) and cloud computing (8.6 per cent), over the next 12 months.
“Just under three-quarters (74.7 per cent) of rural businesses had no plans to adopt new technologies over the same period, of which 65.1 per cent reported that digital technologies were not considered relevant to their business, while 12.0 per cent indicated that digital technologies had already been recently adopted,” added Statistics Canada.
“In 2022, the percentage of sales made online by rural businesses was 4.3 per cent, compared with urban businesses at 7.1 per cent. For rural businesses, the sectors with the highest percentage of sales made online were accommodation and food services (14.9 per cent), information and cultural industries (13.9 per cent), arts, entertainment and recreation (11.2 per cent) and retail trade (9.3 per cent).”
Mario Toneguzzi
(Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada’s Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He works as well as a freelance writer for several national publications and as a consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list)
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