"Chains Fall Apart."
5- 28.07.2025, 15:05
- 5,300
Russian business is facing a severe non-payment crisis.
The growing problems in the Russian economy are making themselves felt more and more strongly, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are the first to feel it. Surveys conducted every month by Promsvyazbank, the SME association Opora Rossii and the analytical center NAFI, in June recorded a sharp deterioration in the situation with non-payments and other unfair behavior of contractors, writes The Moscow Times.
Over the past six months, every fourth company surveyed has faced this problem. At the same time, 15% noted that the number of such cases is growing - this is comparable only to 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Promsvyazbank analysts said. Payment arrangements are most often violated: 79% of those who encountered unscrupulous behavior cited severe payment delays, while 58% said they refused to pay at all for delivered goods/services.
"Payment chains are collapsing, including due to the fact that even large companies delay payment for deliveries," lamented RSPP head Alexander Shokhin. - It's better to hold [the money] for a little while and even pay fines, but the rate covers everything". High rates provoke mass non-payments: customers, having received goods or services, prefer to delay payment, wrote with reference to customer stories Alexei Klimyuk of Alfa Capital. This problem was also noted by the analytical center CMACP, which is close to the authorities.
This is a consequence of problems with the economy, analysts of PSB note: "The aggravation of payment discipline problems may be not so much related to deliberate avoidance of obligations by counterparties, as to the financial problems that have arisen".
The business of small and medium-sized businesses is getting worse, according to the RSBI index calculated on the basis of surveys. It has been declining since the middle of last year and has approached the boundary separating the growth of business activity from recession. In May-June, the RSBI index value was around 51 points - the lowest since the fall of 2022 (more than 50 points - activity growth; below - recession). Sales are especially bad - this component of the index is at its lowest level since December 2022. In June, sales fell at almost every second company (47%), while sales grew at only 13%. Against the background of the high key rate, the problems with sales are growing, comment the authors of the survey. Following the actual indicators, the mood of small and medium-sized businesses is worsening: only 26% expect sales growth, which is the minimum since the beginning of the year.
Since this year, the profit tax has increased, and companies with a turnover over 60 million rubles must pay VAT. Against the backdrop of increased fiscal burden, cases of blocking SME accounts due to overdue tax payments have become more frequent, the survey found. At the same time, the average duration of blocking has increased, which entailed more serious consequences for business.
Small companies feel the impact of high interest rates and economic slowdown more acutely than large businesses. Over five months, the overdue debt of SMEs, according to the Central Bank, increased by almost 20% to 766 billion rubles as of June 1. The total portfolio of loans to small and medium-sized businesses amounted to 15.5 trillion rubles, the share of overdue loans in it increased from 4.4% to 4.9%.
To avoid non-payments, companies have to check counterparties more carefully. The authors of the survey attribute this "prevention" to the growth of the share of companies that have never encountered unfair behavior (by 5 percentage points over the year, up to 43% in June).
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