Despite signs of economic recovery across the eurozone, newly-published data suggests that the region’s record unemployment is being partly fueled by a rise in bad debts facing companies.<br /><br />The data has been published by credit managers Intrum Justitia as part of their annual European Payment Index (EPI), which surveys thousands of companies.<br /><br />Bad debts – bills or invoices that are written off due to late or non-payment – have grown from 3 per cent of annual revenues in 2013 to to 3.1 percent this year, according to the firms surveyed .<br /><br />The EPI equates this loss in revenue to the cost of 8 million jobs.
