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The automotive and transport sectors are particularly affected by poor payment practices.
(Photo: imago images/Jens Schicke)
Mainz/Frankfurt According to a survey, the payment behavior of customers of German companies has further deteriorated in the current year. In a survey published on Tuesday by the credit insurer Coface, three quarters (76 percent) of the 1,075 companies said they had been affected by late payments in the past twelve months. Last year, the proportion of companies that experienced payment delays rose from 59 percent to 65 percent in 2021.
According to Coface economist Christiane von Berg, the data shows how much government support measures have helped companies in the past few years marked by the corona pandemic and the energy crisis: “Now that almost all Covid-19-related support measures have expired and the effects of the “As energy subsidies have leveled off, we have almost returned to pre-crisis levels in terms of payment delays.”
In the survey, companies from the automotive industry (88 percent) and the transport sector (85 percent) reported the worst payment practices. The lowest proportion of companies that had to wait longer for their money was in the textile and clothing industry at 58 percent.
On average, payments were delayed by 30 days in the current year. Despite an increase of one day compared to the previous year, this is still a historically low value, said Coface: Before the pandemic, payment delays were on average around 10 days longer.
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