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Payment discipline in Hungary has fallen back to the 2015 level, according to the research of EOS, a debt management and financial services company.
After 2019, the EOS Group has again conducted a comprehensive survey of the payment habits of the population and the corporate sector, asking around 3,200 decision-makers in 16 countries in spring 2022.
According to the statement, customers in Hungary pay 76 percent of their bills on time, which is roughly the same as in Central and Eastern Europe, but 3 percentage points below the European average of 79 percent. This share is roughly the same as the payment discipline of 7 years ago.
They highlighted that payment terms in Hungary have changed, with Hungarian companies invoicing the public with an average payment term of 30 days in 2019, rising to 33 days by 2022, and the payment term for business-to-business (B2B) invoices increasing from 39 to 43 days.
The research showed that longer payment terms are not enough to offset the effects of crises, with companies still facing increasing delays. The survey found that the proportion of invoices paid late increased by 5 percentage points compared to 2019, from 15 to 20 percent, 2 percentage points higher than the European average.
The share of bad debts is the same as last time, with 4 percent of invoices issued in Hungary not paid at all. Experts say, a significant deterioration is expected.
This is also reflected in a markedly pessimistic mood among the Hungarian companies surveyed. While in 2019 only 15 percent of them were pessimistic about the development of payment habits, today one in four companies believe that the willingness of customers to pay will deteriorate significantly in the next two years, while only 18 percent expect an improvement, they stressed.
Via: MTI ; Featured photo: Pixabay