The number of businesses forced to start insolvency proceedings in the European Union (EU) soared in the third quarter of this year. According to data published by Eurostat, bankruptcy declarations increased by 16.3% between July and September compared to the second quarter.
This is the fifth consecutive quarter in which there has been an increase in bankruptcies after a 9.6% drop in the second quarter of 2021.
Only the transport sector escaped this increase, registering a 5.4% decrease in bankruptcies in the third quarter. Accommodation and food services (+24.0%), financial and insurance activities (+17.8%), and industry (+16.2%) saw the biggest increases.
Among the Member States, Romania was the country where insolvency proceedings shrank the most, with a decline of 36.1%, followed by Cyprus (-32.7%) and Estonia (-21.3%). It should be noted that in 11 of the 16 Member States with available data, the number of bankruptcies has decreased. Conversely, the largest increase in bankruptcies was seen in Hungary (+110.6%), followed by Spain (+66.1%) and Lithuania (+4%).