A total of 10,126 firms filed for bankruptcy, an increase of almost 37% on 2021, creditors’ association Creditreform said on Thursday. About two-thirds of the cases were due to insolvencies, and one-third to organisational shortcomings.
The steep rise must however be seen in the context of Covid-19, the association said: in 2020 and 2021, many inevitable bankruptcies of so-called “zombie firms” were delayed by emergency pandemic state support measures for companies.
With the definitive end to such measures – which were already fading out last year – normality has resumed to the business landscape, Creditreform said.
One peculiarity in the statistics was the 46% increase – to 3,330 cases – in bankruptcies due to organisational deficiencies. Creditreform said this may be due to some companies being deliberately left in a dilapidated state in order to evade responsibility.
Fewer individuals
The number of private persons going bankrupt meanwhile fell by 5% to 8,228. Less than 1,000 of these were by living people, the rest were deceased.
As for the upcoming year, Creditreform does not expect bankruptcies to slow down, given the economic uncertainties sparked by the Ukraine war, the increase in energy costs, the high inflation in the euro area and likely recessions in many countries.
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