In the second quarter of 2022, the registration of new companies in the European Union decreased by 1.2% compared to the previous quarter. At the same time, the number of bankruptcies has been increasing for the fourth quarter in a row, according to data from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, The Brussels Times reported, citing Rador.

Since the beginning of the year, the number of new registrations has been steadily decreasing, by 2.3% compared to the end of 2021. The biggest drop in business registrations occurred in the second quarter of 2020, during the peak of the pandemic, when it fell by almost 20%. After a significant recovery at the beginning of last year, the number of bankruptcies in the EU has steadily increased, and the registration of new businesses has started to decline.

“The increase started in the third quarter of 2021, following a marked decline of 11% in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the first quarter of 2021,” explained Eurostat statistics.

Data for the second quarter of 2022 show that the number of bankruptcy filings increased by 2.2% compared to the first quarter of the year.

The largest increase in the number of business registrations in this quarter compared to the same period last year was registered in Romania (+25.9%).

Business in Belgium

In Belgium, the number of new business registrations fell by 8.6% compared to last year. On average, business registrations in the EU decreased by 4.9% compared to last year.

Over the past year, Belgium recorded the strongest increase in the number of bankruptcies in Europe. There were 71% more bankruptcies in the last three months than in the same period last year, which is more than 10 times higher than the EU average (6%).

Certain sectors have been hit hard by economic uncertainty. Rising energy costs have significantly increased costs for many industries, putting pressure on corporate finances.

“If we look specifically at bankruptcies by type of activity, only the construction and information and communication sectors registered a decrease in the number of bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the previous quarter by -12% and -4, respectively,” writes Eurostat.

Elsewhere, the impact of economic uncertainty can be clearly seen. Compared to the first three months of the current year, the number of bankruptcies increased by 16% in the field of transport and storage and by 12% in the fields of education, health care and social activities. There has not been such a number of bankruptcies in the transport sector for more than seven years.