The partner firm Dun & Bradstreet CIRBIS D&B from Italy has prepared a payment analysis for 21 countries for the period from 2008 to 2012, which showed significant differences in payment discipline among European countries.
In Europe, an average of 39.1 percent of companies settled their obligations on time in 2012, while 3.3 percent of companies, on average, settled their obligations with a delay of 90 days or more in the same year. Germany and Denmark are the countries with the best payment discipline. Last year, as many as 78.8 percent of German companies paid their bills on time, while in Denmark, that percentage was 83.3 percent. Turkey ranks third with 52.7 percent, while Portugal has the worst payment discipline (only 17.6 percent).
In the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, Spain, and Slovenia, between 39.8 and 52.7 percent of companies settled their obligations on time in the past year. In Slovenia, on the payment date, 3.6 percent more companies pay than a year earlier.
In Taiwan, as many as 70.3 percent of companies settled their obligations on time last year, while in Mexico, the figure was 52.9 percent. In China and the USA, the number of companies settling their obligations with greater delays has increased.
