As of: February 15, 2024, 4:58 a.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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According to a current evaluation, the number of bankruptcies remains at a record high.
The numbers are expected to continue to rise in the coming months.
Munich – The wave of bankruptcies is affecting more and more companies in Germany after Corona aid expired.
After a record high in December, the number of corporate insolvencies remained at an unchanged high level in January.
Last month, 1,077 companies filed for bankruptcy; in December there were 1,078, as the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH) announced on Thursday.
The numbers are expected to continue to rise in the coming months.
Insolvency trend: number of company bankruptcies remains high
The number of bankruptcies in January was around 40 percent higher than in the same month last year and almost 20 percent higher than the January average for the years 2016 to 2019, i.e. the period before the corona pandemic, as the IWH explained.
The December value was therefore the highest since IWH data collection began in 2016.
Insolvencies are increasing sharply in Germany.
(Symbolic image) © Bernd Weißbrod / dpa
In addition to the current difficult economic conditions, the IWH also cited the Corona aid paid during the pandemic as the reason for the increasing numbers.
These were often paid to companies that were unproductive before the crisis, which led to few bankruptcies during the pandemic.
“However, this aid must now be repaid in a persistently difficult environment,” said the institute.
This puts too much strain on many weaker companies.
Insolvencies: Key sectors also affected
The wave of bankruptcies is not only affecting companies that had problems before the corona pandemic and were kept afloat for longer with government aid.
According to a study by management consultancy BCG, restructuring takes place much more often in companies from key sectors, which are often carried out in connection with insolvency proceedings.
As the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
reports, according to the study, these are to be expected primarily in the automotive and chemical industries, as well as the real estate sector.
The sectors that are important to Germany are currently struggling with a variety of major challenges: the chemical industry is under pressure from high energy prices, the automotive industry is in the process of transforming to electromobility and is preparing for competition from China - and the real estate industry has to adapt the interest rate turnaround and high costs.
With material from AFP