Accounts Payable of Belarusian “Flagships” Have Broken the Historical Record

Since the beginning of 2021, the amount of debt of large and medium-sized enterprises has risen by 8.3%.

The liabilities of large and medium-sized enterprises have never been raised to this level before. This is evidenced by the figures of official statistics, banki24.by reports.

In Belarus, information on the debts of large and medium-sized enterprises is published with a delay of one and a half months after the end of the reporting period. Therefore, the most recent data for July is usually June 1.

The total debts of large and medium-sized enterprises consist of liabilities on loans and borrowings and accounts payable. As of June 1, the amount of debt on loans and borrowings amounted to 95.9 billion BYN, and the volume of accounts payable - 66.6 billion BYN.

The size of accounts payable of the flagships was the highest since the publication of data according to the adopted methodology. The previous record lasted only a month and was equal to 65.5 billion BYN.

Since the beginning of 2021, the amount of accounts payable of medium and large enterprises has increased by 8.3%.

By comparison, the amount of accounts payable has increased by 12.8% for the whole of 2020 and by 10.8% for the whole of 2019. The growth of accounts payable in Belarus is partly due to the devaluation of the Belarusian ruble.

The fact is that a large share of accounts payable is denominated in foreign currencies, and the depreciation of the "borrower" increases the amount of debt at the expense of exchange rate differences.

Industry is the main center of credit accumulation. As of the reporting date, liabilities of the industry flagships exceeded 27.7 billion BYN. Since the beginning of the year, the size of accounts payable has increased by 15.3%.

The flagships of the agricultural sector had accounts payable of 9.7 billion BYN. And this is the maximum amount of debt in Belarusian rubles.

The previous record was set a month earlier on May 1 (9.5 billion BYN). Since the beginning of 2021, agricultural debt has increased by 11.3%.

Compare: during the full year of 2020, the amount of accounts payable increased by 3%, while in 2019 - by 12.7%. In construction, the amount of accounts payable as of June 1 was 5.7 billion BYN, in trade - 11.1 billion BYN, in transport - 4 billion BYN, in information and communication - 1.3 billion BYN.

A significant part of accounts payable has missed payment deadlines. As of the reporting date, such debt reached 7.608 billion BYN.

The share of overdue payments was 11.4%. The centers of concentration of problem loans in the real sector are the flagships of industry (3.030 billion BYN), agriculture (2.532 billion BYN), construction (656.3 million BYN), and trade (576.8 million BYN).