Chain of Failed Payments Grows in Belarus

Growing loan delinquencies of enterprises have long been the talk of the town.

The discipline of mutual settlements in the real sector is in a poor shape, writes banki24.by.

Debts of the real sector to the financial sector mainly show debts on loans and borrowings. The dynamics of accounts payable demonstrates the state of settlements within the real sector.

December shows the latest statistics on accounts payable as of November 1. By that date, large and medium-sized enterprises have accumulated 59.5 billion BYN of payables.

As compared to early 2020, debts have grown by 9.1%. Over the whole of 2019 accounts payable increased by 10.8%; over 2018 - by 8.1%.

Minsk backbone companies take the lead in terms of accounts payable - 20.8 billion BYN. Also, capital's companies lag only slightly behind these in the Minsk region in terms of debt growth - 14.8% versus 14.9%. The Minsk region ranked second in terms of debt accumulation with 10 billion BYN.

Industry heads the list of activities with the largest share of accumulated debt (39.1%). Debts of industrial enterprises amounted to 23.3 billion BYN. They have grown by 9.2% since early this year.

Food, beverage and tobacco production (food industry) ranks first in terms of the size of accounts payable. The creditors in this industry reached 4.155 billion BYN on the last available date.

Obligations of non-metallic mineral products producers are also significant (3.391 billion BYN). The growth rate of payables in the industry (+24.6%) ranked second after that of manufacturers of vehicles and equipment (+26.3%). By the way, debts of vehicle manufacturers reached 2.139 billion BYN.

Oil refining (2.085 billion BYN), metal industry (2.096 billion BYN) and machine engineering (2.168 billion BYN) liabilities also crossed the line of 2 billion BYN.

Agriculture (8.891 billion BYN), construction (5.409 billion BYN), wholesale trade (4.603 billion BYN) and retail (5.200 billion BYN), and transport (3.520 billion BYN) showed large accumulated payables.

A major part of the accounts payable of large and medium-sized enterprises is overdue. By November 1, the size of toxic debts reached 7.534 billion BYN. The share of overdue loans in the total amount of accounts payable was 12.7% - every eighth ruble.

Industry (3.186 billion BYN), agriculture (2.394 billion BYN) and construction (624.1 million BYN) accumulated the greatest amount of toxic loans.