THE MAJORITY of company owners and managers say they are having problems getting paid by both the state and municipal authorities.
However, the same companies say they are prepared to invest more in the economy as business increases despite rises in interest rates.
According to a new report by the Portuguese Industrial Association (Associação Industrial Portuguesa), 77 per cent of companies have problems with late payments from both the state and câmaras which are taking an average of 120 days to settle accounts. And 65 per cent of company bosses evaluated the state of the economy as ‘bad or very bad’ despite being prepared to increase their investments in 2007.
A half of companies say that their interest rates on bank loans have risen to around five per cent but claim they are so far not suffering because order books are fuller.
In 2006, 58 per cent of firms said they had enjoyed nominal interest rates less than fiveper cent while 34 per cent of respondents said that their bank loans cost them between five and 7.5 per cent – absorbing less than two per cent of their sales profits.
But despite companies enjoying better sales figures and relatively low interest rates from banks, most evaluate the overall economic situation as ‘bad’ with regard to the cost of borrowing money and taxes.
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