The number of people in Finland who habe defaulted on bill payments rose to 385,000 as of the end of March, according to credit rating agency Suomen Asiakastieto.

The latest figure reflected an increase of 12,000 payment defaults compared to the same time last year, it noted in a press release.

The agency's data analytics chief, Pekka Liukkunen, said that the situation is concerning.

"We're very close to the darkest statistics in history," he said in a press release on Thursday.

The all-time record for payment defaults was reached in 2021, during the Covid pandemic, when there were a total of 392,000.

The trouble that people face in making ends meet has continued to grow, although the number of new payment problems has decreased slightly.

Even though there are fewer new defaults on record, it does not necessarily mean the number of people with payment difficulties will decrease, according to Liukkunen.

"The total number of people with payment problems continues to grow because more new people end up in the register than leave it," he explained.