Vicious CIRCLE

The fact that the issue exists and is becoming more and more serious is confirmed by the statistics. "In January this year, over ?5,000 debtors from the construction sector were listed on the overdue payment monitoring programme of the Soliditet Polska credit information agency while their total debt amounted to PLN 228 mln - 54 pct higher than in the same month last year," says Tomasz Starzyk of Soliditet Polska (Bisnode Group). The numbers do not lie - the situation of firms in the construction industry is deteriorating. "It is clear to see in the growing number of bankruptcies filed in the commercial courts: 46 companies went bankrupt in Q1 this year, which is 44 pct than in Q1 2011," comments Tomasz Starzyk. Even though the situation mainly concerns small companies rendering services to bigger entities, we are faced with a general 'breathlessness' of the whole sector. According to Korporacja Ubezpieczeń Kredytów Eksportowych [the Export Credit Insurance [Corporation], the number