Tonga will carry out a national rapid assessment on the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and employment.
The National Tripartite Labour Organisation has confirmed that the assessment will be held from 10 August until 7 September.
The organisation is carrying out the survey with the support of the International Labour Organisation.
The Ministry of Trade & Economic Development (MTED) CEO, Distaquaine Tu'ihalamaka said the survey will look at key areas such as the number of businesses that have been negatively impacted, the number of jobs that have been or will be impacted and the types of sectors impacted because of COVID-19.
The tourism sector will be assessed separately.
According to the Monthly Economic Review for May 2020 released by the National Reserve Bank of Tonga, domestic activities for May were slow as the country maintained its COVID-19 restrictions.
The tourism industry is bearing the brunt of the border lockdown, leaving hotels and resorts empty.
Reduced mobility has also been reflected in domestic transport.
Restaurants and Catering businesses faced weak demand in May as many booked functions and events were canceled. The total number of container registrations decreased by 89 registrations (10.1%) over the month of May owing to a decline in business containers for wholesale and retail businesses. Meanwhile, private containers slightly rose as they benefitted from import duty exemptions as part of the government’s relief package for the pandemic and TC Harold.
Business owners were also requested to apply for Employee Support from the Government’s Economic Stimulus package on behalf of their employees that were lay-off due to the impacts from COVID-19.
Successful applications were allocated a one-off payment of $535 pa’anga per employee.