TOKYO, Reuters – Japan’s restaurants and small hotels continue to struggle with financing pressures due to the COVID-19 crises, a survey revealed on Tuesday. This complicates the central bank’s decision about when to stop funding pandemic relief programs.

A Bank of Japan survey has revealed that an index measuring funding conditions in small and mid-sized restaurants and hotels hit 33 points between December and January.

The readings were better than minus 46 from the last survey. However, they showed that financing conditions are perceived as more severe by firms than being easy.

Small service-sector companies are suffering from the effects of the pandemic. This highlights the gap between those who have survived and those that still need to recover.

The tankan’s outline showed Monday that an index was created to measure the improvement in funding conditions for companies of every size and industry over the period December through December.

These are just a few of the factors that the BOJ will examine at its meeting this week to decide whether or not to reduce emergency funding last year in order to fight a cash crunch caused by swine flu. This fund expires March 2022.

Sources tell Reuters that the board plans to reduce BOJ’s commercial paper and corporate bonds purchases while keeping intact a small portion of a loan program targeting smaller companies.

“The BOJ might end corporate paper and bond purchases,” said Takashi Miwa, chief economist at Nomura Securities. However, given the uncertainty around the Omicron variation, however, central banks may decide to play safe and extend some of the programs beyond March,” stated Takashi Miwa chief economist at Nomura Securities.