The average time it takes for a business bill to get paid was 82.30 days at the end of 2017 - 6.74 days less than a year earlier.

The so-called average Days Sales Outstanding across all the Maltese business sectorswas derived from a survey conducted by the Malta Association of Credit Management (MACM) amongst its members.

The DSO figures for specific industries and sectors were also issued and communicated to the respective MACM members.

"A DSO of 82.30 days is still relatively high when compared to the average DSO of other European countries. In fact, the average DSO for Malta comes very close to that of other Southern European Countries, including Spain at 98 days, Portugal at 76 days and Greece at 115 days, according to the European Payment Index issued by Intrum Justitia," the association said.