At 75%, Malta has highest percentage of companies owed money in EU

In 2015, three in four of Maltese companies reported being owed money from domestic debtors, with overdue debt claims. 

Malta was the country with the highest percentage of companies owed money from domestic debtors, followed by Greece (67%), and Slovenia and Croatia (both 63%). 

At the other end of the scale, fewer than a quarter of companies in Denmark (18%), Sweden (21%) and Estonia (24%) did so. 

Companies were the most likely to have had domestic debtors with overdue debt claims past 30 days but less than six months in Greece (49%) and Malta and Italy (both 44%), and least likely to have done so in Bulgaria (11%), Estonia (14%) and Denmark (15%). 

Companies in Malta (31%), followed by Slovenia (27%) and Croatia (24%) were also the most likely to have had domestic debtors with overdue debt claims at six months or more; companies in Italy (2%), Denmark (3%) and Sweden (5%) had the fewest such debtors. 

This emerges from a survey carried out in the 28 Member States of the European Union between 15 and 24 June, 2016 among enterprises employing one or more persons in manufacturing, services and industry. 200 Maltese companies were interviewed by MISCO.

The survey also shows that four in 10 companies in Malta (43%), Slovenia (41%) and Italy (38%) had enforced unpaid debt claims against domestic debtors via judicial or out-of-court procedure. Companies in Latvia (9%), Estonia (10%) and France (11%) are the least likely to have done this. 

Very few companies in any Member State had overdue foreign debt claims in other countries during the 2015 fiscal year. Companies in Luxembourg (15%), Malta (13%) and Germany (10%) were the most likely to have done so, while those in the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Spain and Poland (all 2%) were the least likely. 

Luxembourg (17%), Malta (13%) and Slovenia (11%) had the highest proportions of companies with foreign debtors in the EEA with debt claims past 30 days but less than six months. 

Malta (5%) is also the country with the highest percentage of companies with foreign debtors outside the EEA with debt claims at six months or more. 

The major obstacle cited by companies in Malta in recovering debts in other countries was the cost of specialist legal advice in another country.