The energy crisis, exploding material costs in some cases and significantly higher interest rates are driving more and more companies into bankruptcy, including in Saxony. According to estimates by Creditreform, the insolvency rate, i.e. the number of insolvencies per 10,000 companies, is 57 this year. Last year, the figure was 45, according to data published by the credit agency on Monday.
According to the data, there will be even more company bankruptcies in Bremen (120 cases per 10,000 companies), Berlin (103), Hamburg (81), North Rhine-Westphalia (77), Saarland (67), Schleswig-Holstein (64) and Hesse (61). The lowest figure was recorded in Thuringia with a rate of 40. The credit agency did not provide detailed reasons for the regional insolvency figures. "Regional industry structures and different age structures of companies are likely to be partly responsible for these differences," it simply said.
At the end of the year, 18,100 companies across Germany are likely to have filed for insolvency. That would be 23.5 percent more than last year. A similarly high figure was last seen in 2019 (18,830 cases). The nationwide insolvency rate is therefore 60, compared to 48 in the previous year. "More and more companies are collapsing under the constant pressure of high energy prices and the interest rate turnaround," explained Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch, Head of Creditreform Economic Research.
Like other experts, Hantzsch also expects a further increase in company bankruptcies: "The number of insolvencies will continue to rise significantly in the coming months given these difficult economic conditions." The number of cases has therefore almost normalized and the special effects from the corona period have largely evaporated. In order to avert a wave of bankruptcies as a result of the pandemic, the state had allowed temporary exemptions in insolvency law.
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