DELINQUENCY | The commercial debt of companies rises to 2,400 million euros, the highest figure since 2009

2023-08-28 07:47:08

The increase in the cost of credit continues to wreak havoc on the economy of companies, especially those small and medium, with more problems to deal with periods of non-payment. And it is that the cost of your debt has multiplied by two in one year. As a whole it already amounts to 2,400 million euros, with ordinary debt of 1,291 million and delinquent debt of 1,075. This is the highest figure reached since September 2009.

However, the average payment period in commercial transactions between companies has maintained its downward trend, although at a slower pace than in previous annual periods. It has stood between April and June at 81.3 days, compared to 82.1 in the previous quarter. This thus becomes the lowest average payment period recorded since 2017, but still well beyond the legal maximum period of 60 days. This is reflected in the conclusions of the latest CEPYME Delinquency Observatory.

Companies work to reduce these terms as a palliative to inflation, because shortening them avoids reducing the real value of pending collections caused by inflation itself, and is a way of avoiding the increase in financial cost caused by the rise in rates on the commercial debt. However, the percentage of invoices paid on time in the second semester remained at 29.5%. Seven out of ten bills are still paid late.

The total commercial debt of the group of SMEs has exceeded 180,000 million euros, of which close to 70,000 correspond to medium-sized ones -12% more than last year-, while small and micro companies have added a debt of 110,000 million euros, 5.5% more. The financial effort has tripled for them, totaling 1,300 million euros. This is a direct consequence of the increase in interest rates: the rate for new loans of up to 250,000 euros has gone from 1.8% in the second quarter of 2022 to 4.6% in the same period this year.

Regarding the delinquent part of the commercial debt, the financial effort has increased in a more contained way because, both for small and medium-sized companies, payment terms have been reduced, although not in the case of micro-enterprises. For SMEs as a whole, the cost of default rose to almost 1,100 million euros in the second quarter, 40.8% more than a year earlier.

Historical record for the industry

Although the average payment period has been reduced in the four large sectors of activity in the second quarter, all of them continue to exceed the 60 days that are legally established. But the industry figures stand out, in which it has been reduced by 77.3 days, the lowest historical record for this sector. This is due, above all, to the behavior of the electricity, water and gas subsectors, which mask the increase in the period in other branches such as machinery and electrical equipment (85.7 days), construction materials (93.5 days) or paper and graphic arts (83.1 days).

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The agri-food and services sectors have registered similar average payment periods, of 73.9 and 73.5 days, respectively. In the case of serviceshas been reached, for the third consecutive quarter, the sharpest reduction, supported by the branches of retail trade, vehicle sales and professional activities, with falls of more than 10 days. The retailer’s average period has been reduced to 65.3 days and vehicle sales to 62 days, the lowest on record.

On the contrary, the subsectors of food distribution and other services have increased their average periods up to 72.4 days (+5.3 days) and 95.3 days (+9 days), respectively. In construction, the average stood at 97.3 days, with an interannual reduction of 1.5 days and a trend of nine consecutive quarters of decreases.