CreditorWatch Business Risk Index – March 2025

CreditorWatch, has released the March results for its Business Risk Index (BRI), revealing that ongoing cost-of-living and cost of doing business pressures continue to drive elevated payment defaults between Australian businesses across a number of key sectors. 

Invoice payment defaults were 42 per cent higher than in March 2024. And, after an end-of-year drop, insolvencies bounced back in February, up around 17 per cent year-on-year in March. Payment defaults are a key forward indicator of insolvencies. 

CreditorWatch CEO, Patrick Coghlan said, ‘As the cost-of-living crisis drags on we are seeing a bigger and bigger impact on all businesses, but particularly those that rely on the discretionary spending of consumers. Households don’t have many levers they can pull to save extra money, but they can certainly reduce costs in areas such as entertainment spending, retail purchases, services such as cleaners and gardeners and, on a larger scale, put off building a new house.’