Late Payments increased during the early stages of 2017, rising to their highest level since Q3 2014 and consolidating a trend of late payment times gradually moving higher. On average, 59.8 percent of Australian businesses pay their bills on time, while 9.5% pay in excess of 60 days beyond invoice terms. Late payment times have continued to increase, this suggests that some of the weakness evident in the economy early in 2017 has impacted the time it takes firms to pay their bills. Low interest rates are likely to have had a positive effect in reducing payment times, but this is likely to have been offset by less robust trading conditions in the economy more generally. Stephen Koukoulas, Dun & Bradstreet Economic Adviser.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
