Businesses are paying their bills significantly faster this year than they were last year, according to the Experian Late Payment Index.
The analysis shows that during Q2 2010 UK businesses paid their bills an average of 20.99 days late compared to 23.61 days late in Q2 2009.
Joe Myers, Head of Commercial Credit at Experian, said: “Even though they remain among the slowest payers, the largest companies have improved significantly over the last year.”
“This improvement in cash-flow is good news for everyone, especially smaller companies, and better for the economy as a whole. Our analysis underlines why it is important for businesses of all sizes to monitor their customers’ and suppliers’ payment performance.”
Businesses in the South East saw the biggest improvement in payment performance in this period, settling accounts on average 16.32 days after the payment is due, down from an average of 20.08 days over the same period last year. Only businesses in the South West paid faster- they were 15.83 days late.
Lorenzo Spoerry
