This paper offers an analysis of payment arrears in the Russian enterprise sector, using both official aggregate data and data from a World Bank survey of 439 large and medium industrial Russian enterprises conducted in mid-1994. The focus is on trade credit arrears, tax arrears, and wage arrears (a companion paper discusses bad bank debts in detail). Among the findings of the paper are: contrary to the standard view of an ongoing “inter-enterprise arrears crisis ” in Russia, levels of trade credit arrears in Russia are compable to those found both in other transition countries and in Western market economies; trade credit arrears and inflation are closely inversely correlated, the likely reason being that when macro policy is being tightened, firms try to create liquidity by extending payment periods; basic credit control mechanisms are in wide use by firms; and financially-distressed firms raise the priority of paying suppliers and lower the priority of paying taxes, with the result that tax arrears are significantly concentrated in financially-distressed firms. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy options
