Which sector has the highest proportion of overdue debts?

Payment ability improved in Q3 but doubts remain.

The retail sector has the highest proportion of slow payments in the third quarter, despite the fact that credit payment ability by retailers improved markedly in the past three months.

According to data by the Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB), slow payments--or those made 30 days or more above terms--accounted for 42.54% of all debt repayments in the retail sector in Q3.

"With more than two-fifths of export transactions made on credit terms, externally-oriented firms will continue remain vulnerable to regional volatilities and headwinds to growth in the near-term. In that sense, local firms may not be entirely out of the woods and it remains to be seen whether payment performance will continue on the uptrend for the final quarter of 2015,” said Audrey Chia, D&B Singapore’s Chief Executive Officer.

Overall, local firms were more prompt with their debt payments during the quarter. Local prompt payments accounted for more than half of the payment transactions while slow payments accounted for less than two-fifths in Q3 2015.