Lisbon, July 4, 2025 (Lusa) - Eight in ten Portuguese companies extend payment deadlines, according to a study that Informa D&B released on Friday, which also concludes that Portugal is increasingly lagging behind the European average in this area.
According to the study, which analysed data from 31 May, “only 20% of companies in Portugal meet the payment deadlines agreed with their suppliers”.
Compliance is limited across all sectors and regions. In terms of size, fewer large companies comply, with only 4% of large companies meeting payment deadlines.
The study also indicates that 43,000 companies could experience significant delays. This risk assesses the probability that, in the next 12 months, a company will record a payment delay of more than 90 days to at least one of its creditors.
The study also mentions a “slight improvement in the percentage of compliant companies”, which now stands at 20% of the total, compared to 15% five years ago. The average number of days of late payment has also fallen, from 26.6 in 2020 to the current 22.6.
Even so, the European Union (EU) average shows greater progress, so “the gap between Portuguese companies and those in the EU is widening”.
The percentage of companies in the EU that meet their deadlines rose from 38% in 2013 to 49% at the end of 2024.
‘Most commercial transactions between companies are carried out on credit, based on trust between companies. Timely payments strengthen this trust and enable creditor companies to obtain loans and make investments for growth.’ They also create a vicious circle that affects companies belonging to the same chain of customers and suppliers, particularly affecting the most vulnerable companies, such as SMEs,” said Teresa Cardoso de Menezes, managing director of Informa D&B, quoted in the statement.
Informa D&B is a business information company. According to an official source, Informa D&B’s business database is the most widely used in Portugal, with over 500,000 users.
Informa D&B is part of the world’s largest business information network, D&B Worldwide Network, with access to data on over 500 million economic agents worldwide.
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