Rapporten

Nearly half of the respondents in Australia said that the risk of payment delay and default from B2B buyers has increased over the past six months. One in five respondents rated it as “significant”.

62.0% of the businesses surveyed in China (compared to 46.3% in Asia Pacific) reported that domestic B2B customers have slowed invoice payment due to liquidity problems over the past year.

92.1% of respondents in Hong Kong (compared to 90.2% of respondents in Asia Pacific) reported having experienced invoice late payment from their B2B customers over the past year.

Russia remains an important market in the global economy. The ten principles of the report are meant to help businesses mitigate risks when exporting to Russia.

A major strength of the British car manufacturing industry is its diversity, with a mix of volume, premium and specialist producers.

Thanks to the strong recovery seen since H2 of 2014 many of Italy’s car suppliers have registered increasing profit margins and an improvement of their financial strength.

Japanese automotive businesses´profit margins have generally improved, mainly due to higher sales in North America.

Payment behaviour in the US automotive sector has been rather good over the past two years.

Lower construction growth and overcapacity affect the sector, but the outlook for 2016 has improved.

The outlook for the industry remains subdued, with many Smaller steel mills struggling with poor operating margins.

Competition in the sector is high, and there are clear signs of price wars as the industry is struggling with overcapacity and weaker demand.

Structural overcapacity in the industry had a negative effect on businesses´ profit margins in 2014, and this negative trend is expected to continue in 2015.

The outlook for the machinery industry is promising, as the Italian economy is expected to grow 0.6% in 2015 and 0.9% in 2016 after two years of contraction.

After modest growth in 2013 (up 0.3%) and 2014 (up 0.4%) the Austrian economy is expected to see a modest 0.8% surge in 2015.

Chemicals/pharmaceuticals has been a well performing sector in Switzerland; demand and profit margins are expected to remain stable in 2015.

German chemicals/pharmaceuticals businesses have a strong market position, and many are highly specialised. The industry has a well-deserved reputation for innovation and a competitive edge.

Despite the significant amount of time given B2B customers to pay their invoices, a sizeable proportion of the total value of domestic B2B receivables in Turkey (55.2%) was overdue.

33% of survey respondents in Sweden (compared to 20% in Western Europe) consider a fall in demand for their products and services as one of the greatest challenges to business profitability in 2015.

Respondents in Denmark are the most inclined to use trade credit of all the countries surveyed in Western Europe. 70.5% of the total value of their domestic B2B sales is transacted on credit terms.

31% of survey respondents in Switzerland, compared to 24% in Western Europe overall, consider cost containment to be one of the greatest challenges to business profitability in 2015.