More bankruptcies in 2007 than in 2006 02/01/2008 00:00

A total of 7,721 companies went bankrupt, one out of every 108 companies

2 January 2008 - There were more bankruptcies in Belgium in 2007 than the year before. A total of 7,721 companies went bankrupt, which is one out of every 108 companies. The figures come from marketing statistics compiled by Graydon Belgium.

The figure is the second highest ever. The high number of bankruptcies in 2007 was only surpassed by the number of bankruptcies in 2004.  There are substantial differences between the regions.

In Flanders one out of 135 companies went bankrupt while in Wallonia it was one in every 103 companies.

In Brussels one in 55 companies went under during the last year.

For the Brussels Region, the figure is an improvement compared to the previous year, for the Flemish and Walloon Regions, the figures are worse.

SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) companies and start-ups are over-represented in the figures; The hotel and restaurant in particular sector had a bad year.

Although the number of companies that went bankrupt in 2007 increased, the number of jobs lost as a consequence of the bankruptcies was less: 15,220 as compared to 15,445 in 2006.

Graydon expects the number of bankruptcies to continue to rise in 2008.

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