Hungary: improving payment practice reflect upbeat mood

Payment Practices Barometer

  • Hungary
  • Agriculture,
  • Consumer Durables,
  • Food,
  • Metals,
  • Steel

1st December 2021

As B2B payments behaviour improves in Hungary, there is still a hint of caution voiced by the businesses we interviewed in the country.

Introduction

Despite the overall improvement in payments behaviour emerging from survey data in Hungary, where payment delays from B2B customers were incurred, many businesses polled in the country responded by refusing new credit requests. A reflection of this is in the small drop in the overall proportion of credit B2B sales made by businesses in Hungary this year compared to last year (48% versus 51%). Looking into 2022, the vast majority of the businesses we spoke to in Hungary expressed optimism and predicted growth in 2022. Most believed customer payment practices will improve and told us they will continue to offer credit as often as they did last year. However, downside risks to this positive outlook remain, as a sizeable number of businesses expressed concerns over the health of the domestic economy over the coming months.

Key takeaways from the report

  • Businesses polled across Hungary told us that they most often offered credit in a bid to win new customers in a competitive market.
  • On the whole, businesses were successful in managing trade credit, as the total value of overdue B2B sales in Hungary dropped to 34% from last year’s 46%. Reportedly, this year an average of 2% of all B2B invoices were written off as uncollectable.
  • Interstingly, 46% of the Hungarian businesses pollled reported a deterioration in DSO over the past year.
  • Looking into 2022, nearly half of the businesses polled in Hungary are worried that ongoing uncertainty over the continuation of the pandemic would trigger an increase
    in insolvencies and a deterioration of corporate payment practices.
  • Perhaps prompted by these concerns, many businesses told us they plan to take further steps to protect their accounts receivable next year, either through a more proactive
    approach to credit management in-house or by taking out a credit insurance policy.
  • When asked which pandemic-induced changes will become a permanent feature of the way they do business, 48% of businesses told us that they have permanently adopted home working. Many have introduced increased digitalisation in their business operations, and a significant number believe changes in customer demand and supply chains will be
    long-lasting.

Interested in getting to know more?

The Payment Practices Barometer report for Hungary gives insights into B2B payment practices and businesses' approach to the management of customer credit risk in the following local industries:

  • Agri-food
  • Consumer durables
  • Steel/Metals

For a complete overview, please download the full country report available in the Related documents section below. The Statistical Appendix and regional Payment Practices Barometer survey results are also available free to download.

All content on this page is subject to our Disclaimer, available here.

Disclaimer, no warranties and exclusion of liability

Atradius disclaims any representations or warranties of any kind, whether expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose of (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO) any information contained on or provided via this Web Site and/or any service described or promoted on this Web Site, including warranties with respect to infringement of any patent, copyright, or other rights of third parties. Atradius shall not be liable for any injury, loss, damage or expense arising out of any access to or use of this Web Site or any site linked to or from this Web Site, including, without limitation, any loss of profit, indirect, incidental or consequential loss. Atradius furthermore shall not be liable for persons, property damage or especially direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, immediate or subsequent (pecuniary) loss. While Atradius has used reasonable efforts in maintaining a virus-free Web Site, it declines any liability for persons, property damage or especially direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, immediate or subsequent (pecuniary) loss which may result from transmission or downloading of computer viruses. Atradius cannot be held liable for hardware damage, loss of data, alteration of data, or downtime.