Business failures fell sharply last November.
While the country was undergoing its second confinement, they fell by 36.1%, according to data from the Banque de France.
"
This decline does not indicate a reduction in the number of companies in difficulty
", nevertheless warns the institution.
Read also: Bankruptcies at their lowest in 2020 ... thanks to Covid-19
This decline is explained above all by the fact that many regulatory procedures were put on hold last year, such as the declaration of the state of insolvency or the prosecution of Urssaf.
These freezes were coupled with numerous direct state aid (short-time working, loans guaranteed by the state with deferred repayment, solidarity funds, etc.).
"
These support measures provide cash aid or allow companies to reduce or delay the payment of certain charges, and therefore the risk of defaulting on these payments,
" says the Banque de France.
Reflection around the end of aid
In other words, these aids allow companies to keep, for some artificially, their heads above water.
Thus, the number of failures recorded over the last three months of 2020 is nearly 40% lower than that observed over the same period in 2018 and 2019. This decline can be observed “
in all sectors and for most of them. categories of business,
”notes the Banque de France.
Read also: Bankruptcies: why a massacre is inevitable in construction and restoration
But the slaughter should not be long, according to the National Council of Commercial Court Clerks (CNGTC), which expects cascading bankruptcies this year.
The government has certainly promised to maintain aid to companies in difficulty "
as long as the crisis lasts
", according to Bruno Le Maire.
But the executive is also thinking about the best way to disconnect them.
The president of the CPME, François Asselin, warned, in the columns of Le Figaro: "
the strategy of withdrawing public support must be correlated with the development of the recovery plan and we will only solve this problem if we deal with debt reduction issues. business and rebound in activity
”.