September 2022

Post n°284

Payment times still long in French overseas territories despite the health crisis

Published on 09/26/2022

Share links

By Bruno Terrien

Late payments are a structural weakness of companies in the French overseas territories. By accelerating the recovery of trade receivables, the health crisis has led to a significant reduction in the cash flow needs associated with payment times. However, companies facing the longest payment times did not benefit from this improvement.

Chart 1: Differences in payment times between the French overseas territories and France
Chart 1: Differences in payment times between the French overseas territories and France Source: IEDOM – FIBEN database
Updated on 09/26/2022 08:42
Post n°283

The resilience of French SMEs two years into the Covid crisis

Published on 09/19/2022

Share links

By Nicoletta Berardi, Benjamin Bureau and Frédéric Delamarre

This post assesses the financial position of French SMEs at the end of March 2022, i.e. two years after the start of the Covid-19 crisis, and at the very beginning of the war in Ukraine. It finds that the vast majority of SMEs have weathered the health crisis well, particularly by keeping their net bank debt under control.

Chart 1: Distribution of SMEs according to their level of net bank debt (as % of number of companies)
Chart 1: Distribution of SMEs according to their level of net bank debt (as % of number of companies) Source: Banque de France, Anacredit and ad hoc bank deposit database
Updated on 09/19/2022 08:43
Post n°282

GDP-linked bonds: the bewitching song of the sirens

Published on 09/01/2022

Share links

Par Sarah Mouabbi, Jean-Paul Renne and Jean-Guillaume Sahuc

Debt-to-GDP ratios in advanced economies increased considerably during the Great Recession and the recent pandemic, and may prove to be a source of vulnerability. Commentators propose indexing the debt service to GDP growth to provide the government with an automatic stabilizer for its financing. FNew fndings suggest that GDP-linked bonds are more expensive for the government and can only prevent high tail risks in debt-to-GDP ratios in the short run.

Chart 1 : Realized vs. expected real payoffs of one-year bonds with unit face value
Chart 1 : Realized vs. expected real payoffs of one-year bonds with unit face value Source: Mouabbi, Renne and Sahuc (2021).
Updated on 09/01/2022 08:38