Suppliers wait longer for payments
Suppliers have taken the role of banks in the battered Greek economy, as the average time it takes clients to pay their suppliers has continued to grow in 2017 compared to 2016, according to research by credit insurance company Atradius.
Although suppliers are granting longer periods for the payment of invoices, the delay recorded after the deadline has also increased, taking the total average payment time to 111 days this year, against 95 days in 2016. It is noted that 2.5 percent of invoices’ value is never collected, which is almost twice the equivalent rate in Western Europe.
Data illustrate the extreme pressure created in the private economy by enterprises’ lack of liquidity as well as the limited efficiency of legislation concerning payment delays in transactions between businesses.
Atradius’s findings show that 52.1 percent of sales are conducted on credit: 60.6 percent of sales to domestic clients (down from 65 percent in 2016) and 43.7 percent of sales to clients abroad (against 48.3 percent last year). Despite this decline, it remains one of the highest rates in the European Union.
