Analytics, Economics, EU – Baltic States, Statistics

The start of recession is also being felt by 21% of entrepreneurs in Lithuania and 9% in Estonia. At the same time, Italian entrepreneurs are the most worried about a new recession, with 65% of them already feeling its effects.

The European Payment Report 2019 also reveals that in Latvian the business-to-business (B2B) sector, payments are settled within 18 days on average as compared to 23 days in Lithuania and 16 days in Estonia. The average delay of corporate payments is two days for deals in Latvia and Lithuania and one day in Estonia. The longest delays of corporate payments in Europe have been recorded in Portugal, the Netherlands and Greece.

Asked about main reasons for delaying payments, 43% of the surveyed entrepreneurs in Latvia cited financial difficulties, 19% admitted delaying payments on purpose, 16% blamed clients’ administrative inefficiency and 6 percent named disagreements over the services or goods delivered.

The survey also reveals that 59% of entrepreneurs in Latvia believe that cash could be phased out from business in more than a decade or never, 18% believe it might happen in the next ten years, 16 percent expect cash to disappear in five years and eight percent think it could happen in the next couple of years. Across Europe, 48% of respondents said cash will disappear in the next decade.

The European Payment Report is an annual financial survey on corporate payment habits and the impact of delayed payments on European businesses’ development and growth. Intrum conducts the survey, polling nearly 12,000 businesses in 29 European countries. The latest survey was carried out from January 31, 2019 to April 5, 2019.