The second most often cited reason for payment delay is that
the B2B customers is using outstanding invoices as a form of financing.
34.7% of Eastern European respondents reported this
reason in respect to domestic customers and 25.5% in respect
to foreign customers. In Western Europe 34.1% of respondents
reported this reason in respect to domestic and 29.4% in respect
to foreign payment delays. By country, this was most frequently
reported by respondents in Slovakia (35.7%) and in the Czech Republic
(34.7%), and the least by respondents in Hungary (10.3%).
However, as observed in Western Europe, these two reasons for
payment delay can be seen as two sides of the same coin, as liquidity
constraints could be used by B2B customers to hide their
use of outstanding invoices to finance their business.