A wave of bankruptcies is rolling through Germany – but that’s only one side of the coin. The number of new businesses is higher.
The wave of bankruptcies is rolling: In October, 22.4 percent more regular bankruptcies were filed than a year before, as the Federal Statistical Office announced. The growth rates have been in double digits since June; in September it was 19.5 percent.
However, the insolvency process is influenced by extraordinary factors. During the Corona and energy crisis, many companies were saved from insolvency with massive government aid. Experts therefore see the current increase as more of a normalization. This is also shown by the statistics, which show significantly lower numbers of insolvencies than in 2015.
For the first nine months of the year, the number of commercial abandonments totaled 352,400, which is 11.4 percent more than in the corresponding period last year. According to Destatis, the legal form and number of employees of around 72,200 of these companies indicate greater economic importance.
Despite Economic crisis more new businesses
But even more businesses were founded in the midst of the economic downturn in Germany. From January to September 2023, new businesses rose by 8.6 percent to around 460,300 compared to the same period last year. Of these, the statisticians counted around 91,400 of these companies with greater economic importance. That was 2.5 percent more than in the same period last year.
Greater economic significance is assumed if a business is founded by a legal entity or a partnership. “Businesses founded or discontinued by natural persons can also fall under this, provided the person is registered in the commercial register, employs employees or has a craft card when they were founded,” says the Federal Statistical Office.