Small companies are the category recording most payment delays, 43% of total, while large and medium companies have 20% of total each, according to the annual KeysFin study “Business Conditions in Romania”, which shows that delayed payments of non-financial companies have grown by 7% compared to 2009, but dropped by 30% against the top reached in 2014, reaching 86 billion lei in 2018.
Although Romanian economy has had a growing evolution in past years, over half of local companies recording profit of 54% in 2018, part of problems in the business environment have worsened, as in the case of unpaid debts or the staff shortage, specialists say.
There are about 619,200 small non financial companies in Romania (business figure under 2 million euros), and most of them activate in the fields of commerce, professional activities and constructions.
The average period for debt payment (DSO) and the average debt payment period (DPO) were 91 and160 days in 2018, recording a drop compared to 2009, when they were 97 and 178 days.
In economy sectors, the longest payment terms are in constructions, while the shortest are in commerce, HORECA and health. Average payment periods in constructions were 178 days (DSO) and 370 days (DPO). In agriculture, payments are made in 268 days, on the average, while debts are collected in 158 days. On the other hand, payments are made in 108 in commerce and debts are collected in 60 days.
As for commercial debts, they grew by 41% compared to 2009, reaching 284.6 billion lei in 2018. Commercial debts represented 28.7% of total debts recorded by Romanian companies in 2018.
KeysFin draws up the study “Business Conditions in Romania” annually, based on an analysis of data supplied by local public institutions and by interpreting other data like international ratings received by Romania or strategic investments made for the on-going year.
