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Due to overdue B2B invoices, 20.3% of respondents in Romania had to postpone payments to their own suppliers while 14.8% had to correct cash flow.

The proportion of past due B2B invoices is the second highest in the region and almost 60% of Polish respondents said that this affected their businesses.

Despite improvements in 2018, respondents in Slovakia reported an increase in DSO and 27.5% of businesses seem to have been impacted by late payments.

2018 brought many changes in Turkey – more frequent payment delays, increases in the proportion of overdue B2B invoices and DSO, a longer payment duration.

It seems that the market is rather resilient in the light of the ongoing Sino-US trade dispute, but overcapacity in the electric car segment is increasing.

Any imposition of tariffs on car parts and vehicle imports would severely impact the US automotive industry, most probably leading to more insolvencies.

Both payment delays and insolvencies are expected to increase in the coming months as decreasing investments and lower production will impact suppliers.

Despite the ongoing upturn, automotive suppliers at the lower end of the value chain face elevated debt levels, strong competition and price pressure.

Margins continue to decrease due to increased material and labour costs, rising competition, pressure on sales prices and the need to invest heavily.

The sector shows good growth rates, but manufacturers active in the US are affected by the import tariffs on steel and aluminium imposed since June 2017.

Smaller automotive businesses experienced a decrease in equity, solvency and liquidity ratios - a trend that is expected continue in the coming months.

The impact of potential US tariffs on car and car-part producers would be limited, as the US is not a key market for Spanish OEMs due to their model range.

While sales in the Mexican automotive market remained subdued in the first half of 2018 car exports have increased 10%, helped by new production plants.

Due to the high export dependence any imposition of import tariffs by the US would have an adverse impact on the sector, especially for Tier 1 businesses.

Payment duration in the Slovakian automotive sector ranges from 45 to 90 days, and the payment experience has been good over the past two years.

Profit margins are rather high in the sector, with most businesses financially resilient enough to cope with minor volatility in demand or commodity prices.

Despite the rebound in oil prices economic growth is expected to recover only modestly in 2018 as fiscal consolidation hampers private consumption growth.

Despite the painful short-term effect of rising prices for consumers, in the medium-term the economy should benefit from the IMF-programme related reforms.

Economic expansion has been maintained through robust performance of automotive, aeronautics, chemicals and electronics industries and the tourism sector.

The economic diversification will proceed only slowly, leaving the economy largely dependent on oil revenues and state support for the time being.