Pressure over companies’ cash mounted again in February and March after things had somewhat calmed down in December and January. January even saw a five-year low be reached, of below RON300 million, but in February and March bounced payments again neared the psychological threshold of RON1 billion.
“Bounced payments are an indicator reflecting the state of the economy. I cannot see an immediate cause of this increase, it’s quite a stark contradiction with the statistical indicators we have at this time. We must wait and see what’s going to happen next,” said economic analyst Aurelian Dochia.
The monthly average of bounced payments revolved around RON770 million in the first quarter. By comparison, the monthly average posted during last year had stood at RON660 million and in the first quarter of 2014 the monthly average had slightly topped half a billion lei.
Bounced payments reached RON950 million in March, almost double the level of March 2014. However, this year’s peak was reached in February, when bounced payments topped RON1 billion.
The number of bounced payment cases registered in the first quarter stood at 22,000, 7,000 lesss than in January-March 2014.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)