“
There is no wall of bankruptcies
”: faced with soaring energy prices, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire dismissed on Wednesday the hypothesis of an explosion in the number of companies which would be forced to put the key under the door.
"
There is an explosion in electricity and gas prices which is hard for thousands of entrepreneurs, but they are coping
," said the government's number two on France Inter.
"
It's difficult, we support them, but I will not let it be said that it will be accompanied by a wave of closures, bankruptcies, because this is not the case
", he insisted, the day after the announcement of specific support measures for bakers.
“
Today, less than 1% of entrepreneurs plan to close or slow down their production
,” assured Bruno Le Maire based on figures from INSEE.
According to the latest business survey from the National Institute of Statistics, which specifically questioned industrial companies, the total drop in their production "
directly linked to the rise in energy prices
" would be around barely 1.5%.
Disagreement over numbers
In its latest survey published at the end of October, the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises for its part suggests that 9% of managers of VSEs/SMEs “
plan to stop their activity due to the rise in energy prices
”.
A figure that the government “
contests
”, indicated Bruno Le Maire.
"
You can give the example of Duralex or William Saurin
", two companies which recently announced a suspension or partial stoppage of their activity due to the explosion of energy costs, "
but you will not be able to find hundreds of examples
", added Bruno Le Maire.
He stressed that the general situation was improving, pointing to the figures for partial activity: “
30 times less used at the end of 2022 compared to the beginning of the year
”.
Despite inflation of more than 15% in energy prices between December 2021 and December 2022 according to INSEE, "
there are few companies that are truly in great difficulty in the face of the explosion in electricity prices, and which would suddenly close or slow down their activity
, ”said the minister.
With regard to the 33,000 bakers in France, for example, there are "
perhaps a few hundred bakers who are in real difficulty and therefore need
" the support measures unveiled on Tuesday by the executive.
More broadly, “
there are thirty times fewer partial activity schemes at the end of 2022 than at the start of 2022
”, argued Bruno Le Maire.
Read alsoWhy a baker's electricity bill can be multiplied by seven
According to government figures communicated to AFP, the number of requests for partial activity (of common law) validated by the administration rose from 40,073 in January 2022 to 1,382 in November.
With regard to long-term partial activity, which aims to preserve employment in companies facing reductions in activity due to a temporary shock (pandemic for example), the number of validated authorizations increased from 1,496 in January 2022 to 385 in November.
At the same time, Olivia Grégoire, the Minister Delegate in charge of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Trade, Crafts and Tourism, however, showed herself to be flexible, stressing on the microphone of Cnews that "if we have to do more, we will do more”.
