Registrations of new businesses in the EU decreased by 1.2% in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the previous quarter. Since the beginning of the year, new registrations have been dropping, with the first quarter registering a 2.3% decrease, compared with the fourth quarter of 2021.
As for declarations of bankruptcies, they increased again for the fourth quarter in a row. The increase started in the third quarter of 2021, following a noticeable 11% drop in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2021. The most recent data show that in the second quarter of 2022, declarations of bankruptcies increased by 2.2% compared with the first quarter of 2022, Eurostat says.
The number of registrations of businesses in the first two quarters of 2022 was still higher compared with the pre-pandemic period in 2019.
Declarations of bankruptcies increase the most in transport activities in Q2 2022
Looking specifically at bankruptcies by activity, only the construction and the information and communication sectors registered decreases in the number of bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2022, compared with the previous quarter (-12% and -4%, respectively). On the other hand, other activities showed an increase in bankruptcies. Transportation and storage (+16%) and education, health and social activities (+12%) were the activities with the highest increases in the number of bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the previous quarter.
Compared with the periods before the pandemic (i.e. before 2020), the number of declarations of bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2022 was lower in most sectors of the economy with two following main exceptions: transportation and storage and accommodation and food services (where the bankruptcies were higher in 2022 than before the pandemic).
The largest drops in the number of bankruptcies comparing Q2 2022 and the period before the pandemic (i.e. before 2020) were recorded in industry, construction, information and communication and trade.
