Record number of bankruptcies reported

A record 12,409 businesses and people declared bankruptcy last year, with marked increases reported in December.

According to debt recovery firm Creditreform, the commercial registry recorded 6,661 bankruptcies of businesses in 2011, an increase of 6.5 per cent on the previous year.

Although business bankruptcy declaration rates were relatively stable throughout the course of the year, a 19.4 increase in declarations – 406 – was recorded in December alone.

A similar set of figures was reported for personal bankruptcy rates, which reported a 0.5 per cent increase to 5,748 declarations for the year but saw a 3.4 per cent increase in December.

2011 was also notable for a 5.2 per cent increase to 39,671 in the number of new business created. But inversely, a record number of companies – 28,278 – were struck off the register all together, an increase of 11 per cent over 2010.