Cash-starved market delays payments to companies

By Evgenia Tzortzi

A lack of cash availability accounts for 84.3 percent of the delays in payments among domestic enterprises this year, the barometer of transaction behavior used by international credit insurer Atradius has shown, as uncertainty has seen the economy slip back into the red.

Atradius noted that while the share of Greeks who cited the lack of cash as the main cause for payment delays had declined significantly last year, ?this year the rate has rebounded reflecting the increase in the country?s solvency risk.?

There was a similar increase in payment delays by foreign clients, reaching 57 percent of survey respondents, a rate that is some 20 percent points higher than in Western Europe.

Two in every five respondents answered that the main challenges to the companies? profits in 2015 is maintaining a sufficient cash flow and collecting dues, far above the Western European average.