More and more German companies declare insolvency
The number of insolvencies in Germany have been trending upward in recent months.
In April of this year German courts reported a total of 2,125 business insolvencies - up 11.5 percent compared to April in 2024.
During this time, there were a total of 6.1 insolvencies per 10,000 businesses in Germany.
The sectors that saw the highest rate of insolvencies were transport and warehouse storage, followed by construction and then accommodation and food services.
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The total value of the reported insolvencies in April was approximately €2.5 billion.
One year prior, in April 2024, the value of the claims had been around €11.4 billion. The decrease in value despite the increase in total number of insolvencies demonstrates that more smaller companies are becoming insolvent now, whereas one year prior fewer but more valuable companies had done so.
Revitalising the German economy and offering businesses support was among the chief campaign promises of the conservative Union parties (CDU/CSU) who have since taken the helm of the federal government.
So far they have pushed forward with some
tax cuts
meant to support businesses, including cutting electricity taxes
for the manufacturing, agriculture and forestry industries
.
But a bigger economic turnaround will be much harder to initiate. On top of everything else is the
looming threat of US tariffs
, which have directly impacted German exporters, big and small alike.
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Individual insolvencies also rose in April this year, but not nearly as dramatically.
There were 6,328 consumer insolvencies in April this year, which was up 0.8 percent compared with the same month one year earlier.
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Destatis notes that preliminary data only includes cases in which an initial decision has been made by the insolvency court. In most cases this means that the numbers reported correspond to cases that were filed up to three months earlier.
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