PARIS (Reuters) – The number of companies in the European Union that went bankrupt increased by 8.4% in the second quarter of 2023, compared to the first quarter, an increase for the sixth consecutive quarter, announced Thursday Eurostat, which reports a record level since 2015.
The most affected sectors are accommodation and food services, which saw bankruptcy declarations increase by 23.9% compared to the first quarter, followed by transport and storage (+15.2%) and the education and social activities (+10.1%).
The number of bankruptcy declarations was higher in the second quarter of 2023 than in the last quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the health crisis, the number of insolvencies fell thanks to the public support measures taken by governments to avoid defaults.
The greatest increase in bankruptcies between these two periods can be observed in the accommodation and catering sector with an increase of 82.5%.
The number of bankruptcies fell in just two sectors, industry (-11.5%) and construction (-2.7%), between the end of 2019 and the second quarter of 2023, reports Eurostat.
In France, the number of business failures remains “upward while remaining below its pre-pandemic average level”, the Banque de France said on Thursday.
The institution reports that the number of cumulative failures over the last twelve months to the end of July stood at 49,863, compared to an average level over the period 2010-2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, of 59,342.
(Writing by Zhifan Liu, editing by Kate Entringer)
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