26 Mar 2014

Big businesses slower to pay bills

5:22 pm on 26 March 2014

While businesses as a whole have been paying their bills faster than they have in 10 years, large businesses employing 500 or more people have been dragging their heels.

The credit reporting company, Dun & Bradstreet, says businesses on average took less than 40 days to pay their bills in the December quarter, down from nearly 43 days in the March quarter last year.

Australian businesses are much tardier payers, averaging 53 days, than local businesses.

Dun & Bradstreet says when businesses pay their bills earlier, this returns money back into circulation at a faster rate and that provides a positive knock-on effect through the entire economy.

But Dun & Bradstreet's New Zealand general manager, Lance Crooks, says larger businesses with 500 or more staff took an average of 45 days to pay their bills in the December quarter, up from 41 percent in the same three months a year earlier.