14,700 corporate bankruptcies expected in Germany this year

BERLIN

Some 14,700 companies will go bankrupt by the end of this year, according to estimates by a credit reporting agency.

That would be about 4% more than in 2021, according to calculations by Creditreform.

"Persistent inflation, rising interest rates and energy costs, as well as an increasingly fierce competitive situation are taking their toll on many companies," said Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch, head of economic reasearch at Creditreform, during a presentation in Frankfurt on Tuesday.

Like many other experts, Creditreform expects a further increase in corporate insolvencies next year. The increase from 2021 to 2022 is moderate, Hantzsch said, "but is likely to be just the prelude to a further acceleration in insolvency activity."

In 2021, the year of the pandemic, there were 13,993 cases of corporate insolvency in Germany, the lowest figure since the introduction of the current insolvency code in 1999, according to official figures.

However, in order to avert a wave of bankruptcies as a result of the pandemic, the state had allowed for exemptions for the companies.