The number of corporate insolvencies in Germany is increasing again significantly. The credit agency Creditreform registered 8,400 bankruptcies in the first six months of this year, as announced on Thursday. This means an increase of 16.2 percent compared to the first half of 2022. According to the experts, the last time there was a higher percentage increase was in 2002.
Improvement is not in sight. “A further increase in insolvencies is to be expected,” the experts predicted. The enormous cost burdens due to high energy and material prices would have an effect: “After years of falling insolvency figures, the trend has turned,” says the head of Creditreform economic research, Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch. Despite the significant increase in cases, it is more a matter of normalization than a “wave of insolvencies,” says the expert.
The poor consumer climate also contributed to the development. “Inflation unsettles consumers and slows down the mood to buy significantly,” said Hantzsch. For many companies, the generously distributed state funds during the Corona crisis would also be a problem, the repayment of which is now pending.
According to Creditreform, medium-sized and large companies have also found themselves in crisis more frequently than usual in recent months, so that the number of employees affected by the bankruptcy of their employers has risen disproportionately: from 68,000 in the first half of 2022 to an estimated 125,000 in the first six months of this year .
By contrast, the number of consumer bankruptcies in the first half of the year was 33,200, the same level as in the previous year. The energy crisis and inflation have not yet had a noticeable impact on the number of consumer bankruptcies, says Hantzsch. One reason for this is that the labor market has so far proven to be robust despite the current recession.
However, the expert also expects consumer bankruptcies to deteriorate noticeably by next year at the latest. Consumers’ fear of not being able to pay for everyday costs is already significantly greater than it was a year ago. For the rest of the year, the credit agency expects the situation to worsen further.