Germany Corporate Payment Survey 2023: On the way back to the bad old times

In contrast to last year, the latest edition of Coface’s survey on corporate payment experience in Germany was not affected by special events like the COVID-19 pandemic or the onset of the war in Ukraine and the resulting price pressures of commodities. This led to a normalization effect and the 2023 payment figures moved closer to pre-pandemic levels. Once again, more companies offered payment terms in 2023 (79% of all participants), which is comparable to 2019 (81%). The general preference for short credit terms in Germany remained unchanged: more than half of the surveyed companies requested payments to be made within 30 days in 2023, while ultra-long credit terms (120+ days) remained rare.

The payment delay figures show how much government support measures have helped companies in recent years. Indeed, now that almost all COVID-19 related support measures have ended and the impact of energy subsidies has levelled off, the number of companies reporting payment delays normalized and increased to a share of 76% in 2023.