Business: Number of bankruptcies increases

The permanently difficult economic situation forces companies bankrupt. In March, the number of regular insolvencies requested rose again by 5.7 percent compared to the previous year, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office. After all, the growth rate remained in the single -digit range for the first time since June 2024 (+6.3 percent).

The procedures only flow into the statistics after the first decision of the insolvency court, as the authority emphasizes. The actual time of the bankruptcy application is often approximately three months before.

Higher demands of the creditors

According to the final results, the local courts registered 1,830 corporate insolvencies in January, which together deal with the claims of the creditors of 5.3 billion euros. The number of procedures was 12.8 percent higher than a year earlier. The claims had been lower 3.5 billion euros in January 2024. Once again, companies from the business section and traffic had to show their insolvency particularly often.

The bankruptcy numbers continue to increase. According to previous information, the district courts received 21,812 applications in 2024. That was 22.4 percent more than a year earlier when an increase rate of 22.1 percent had already been registered. A higher number of bankruptcies last existed in 2015 with 23,101 cases. There were even significantly higher numbers in the financial crisis in 2009.

The chambers of industry and commerce expect another swelling of the bankruptcy wave. Smaller companies in particular reported in the economic surveys of the chambers of liquidity bottlenecks. This is another warning signal for the coalition that the economy had to relieve the sake of noticeably relieving, said Dihk chief feralyst Volker Treier.