Financial Analysis and Business Liquidity in SMEs During Economic Crises
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Latin American small and medium-sized enterprises exhibit high financial vulnerability during economic crises due to their dependence on current income, limited cash reserves, and unequal access to credit. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between financial performance and business liquidity, considering operating conditions and financing constraints. A qualitative, documentary, non-experimental, longitudinal, retrospective, and exploratory study was conducted using academic literature and institutional reports published between 2019 and 2024. The results revealed highly asymmetric liquidity distributions, an average capacity to cover ten weeks of fixed costs, and a mean sales contraction of 34.8% among small and medium-sized enterprises, compared with 22.6% among large firms. Moreover, only 29% had access to overdraft facilities, while the recovery of deposits showed increased use of digital channels. These findings indicate that liquidity does not depend exclusively on accounting ratios, but on the interaction among cash flow, working capital, firm size, economic sector, and access to financing. It was concluded that an integrated assessment of these dimensions enables a more accurate identification of business vulnerability and supports managerial and institutional decision-making.
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