Krediidiinfo AS statistics of the first half of 2008 on companies’ payment behaviour reveal that over the year the number of companies with payment problems has increased by 42 per cent or by 934 companies. 

According to the statistics of Estonian Credit Register, the sum of payment defaults of all actively operating Estonian companies (around 52,000) amounted to EEK 1.4 billion in the first half of 2008 and increased by 285%, compared to the same period in 2007. 

Considering economic sectors, the number of companies with payment defaults has most grown in the real estate and construction sector and among hotels and restaurants. The least payment problems have energy, gas, water and agricultural companies. 

Considering counties, the number of companies with payment disorders has most increased in Pärnu County (51%), Tartu County (49%) and Harju County (43%). 

According to the statistics, the adverse conjuncture has most affected companies with fewer than 10 employees – over the year the number of companies with debt problems grew 116% in the sector. Most confident can be large companies with 250 and more employees, who have even been able to decrease their payment defaults, compared to last year. 

Krediidiinfo will for the first time disclose the statistics on the payment behaviour of actively operating Estonian companies, broken down by fields of activity. The information is used daily in Krediidiinfo’s statistical models, ratings and calculating credit opinions. 

According to Krediidiinfo, among the clients of a typical Estonian company, there are 18% of companies with a high credit risk. That shows it is high time the companies started to pay more attention to the topic of credit management.