Business failures - France 2023Nov

Published on 13 December 2023

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On a year-to-date basis, the number of corporate bankruptcies continues to rise in November, but remained below its pre-pandemic average
  • At the end of November, the cumulative number of corporate bankruptcies over the last twelve months continued to rise, to reach 54,075 (see Figure 1).



  • This figure reflects a catch-up trend that concerns all sectors of the economy (see Table A), but in a heterogeneous fashion. This is also true for all firm sizes (see Table B). The growth in corporate bankruptcies continues to slow (see Figure 2).



    •
  • The number of annual corporate bankruptcies remains significantly lower than the average level recorded over the 2010-2019 period (59,342), prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the number of corporate bankruptcies had been particularly low since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, due to the adoption of regulations temporarily granting additional time to both assess and report insolvency, and, later, cash support measures to avoid the occurrence of insolvency.



To find out more: data on business start-ups are reported by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE): Business births on the INSEE's website
A - Corporate bankruptcies by sector
Bankruptcies in number of legal units, year on year change (%)
Aggregate over previous 12 months (a) (raw data)
Avg. 2010-2019 Oct. 23 Oct. 23/Oct. 22 Oct. 23/2010-2019 Nov. 22 Nov. 23 prov. Nov. 23/Nov. 22 Nov. 23/2010-2019
Business sector
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) 1,359 1,214 5.1% -10.7% 1,192 1,159 -2.8% -14.7%
Industry (BE) 4,442 3,843 39.2% -13.5% 2,877 3,865 34.3% -13.0%
Construction (FZ) 14,684 10,990 38.5% -25.2% 8,169 11,289 38.2% -23.1%
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) 13,070 11,520 33.0% -11.9% 9,006 11,708 30.0% -10.4%
Transportation and storage (H) 1,901 2,070 23.4% 8.9% 1,693 2,164 27.8% 13.8%
Accommodation and food service activities (I) 7,374 7,402 52.6% 0.4% 5,113 7,588 48.4% 2.9%
Information and communication (JZ) 1,480 1,619 43.9% 9.4% 1,150 1,661 44.4% 12.2%
Financial and insurance activities (KZ) 1,150 1,267 41.2% 10.2% 950 1,274 34.1% 10.8%
Real estate activities (LZ) 1,984 1,800 38.0% -9.3% 1,354 1,813 33.9% -8.6%
Advisory & Business support activities (MN) 6,379 6,149 31.8% -3.6% 4,764 6,304 32.3% -1.2%
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (P to S) 5,311 5,193 39.2% -2.2% 3,961 5,168 30.5% -2.7%
All firms (b) 59,342 53,147 36.8% -10.4% 40,309 54,075 34.2% -8.9%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early December 2023: final for October, provisional for November.


Calculation: Banque de France - Companies Directorate - Companies Observatory.
Note: According to INSEE, the number of firms has risen by around 40% in 10 years.


a Aggregate number of corporate bankruptcies over previous 12 months compared to the same aggregate one year before, and with the 2010-2019 average (January 2010 to December 2019).


b The line « All firms » includes legal units whose business sector is not known.
B - Corporate bankruptcies by firm size
Bankruptcies in number of legal units, year on year change (%)
Aggregate over previous 12 months (a) (raw data)
Avg. 2010-2019 Oct. 23 Oct. 23/Oct. 22 Oct. 23/2010-2019 Nov. 22 Nov. 23 prov. Nov. 23/Nov. 22 Nov. 23/2010-2019
Size
SME, among them 59,309 53,093 36.8% -10.5% 40,280 54,022 34.1% -8.9%
Micro-enterprises and unknown firm's size 56,054 48,836 34.5% -12.9% 37,568 49,658 32.2% -11.4%
Very small firms 2,011 2,653 66.6% 31.9% 1,710 2,710 58.5% 34.8%
Small firms 914 1,202 73.2% 31.5% 757 1,231 62.6% 34.7%
Medium-size firms 330 402 76.3% 21.8% 245 423 72.7% 28.2%
ISE - Large Firms 33 54 107.7% 63.6% 29 53 82.8% 60.6%
All firms 59,342 53,147 36.8% -10.4% 40,309 54,075 34.2% -8.9%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early December 2023: final for October, provisional for November.


Calculation: Banque de France - Companies Directorate - Companies Observatory.


a Aggregate number of corporate bankruptcies over previous 12 months compared to the same aggregate one year before, and with the 2010-2019 average (January 2010 to December 2019).
C - Changes in corporate bankruptcies
1 - Number of bankruptcies
Cumulated over previous 12 months
From Dec. 1991 to October 2023 (+ November 2023 provisional)
Note: The blue line represents the average value of the number of corporate bankruptcies over twelve months observed monthly between January 2010 and December 2019.
2 - Change in number of bankruptcies

Annual year-on-year change
From Dec. 1991 to September 2023 (+ October 2022 provisional)
(in %)




3 - Monthly number of bankruptcies

From Jan. 2019 to October 2023 (+ November 2023 provisional)
4 - Loan amounts of bankrupt non-financial firms over loan amount of all firms - by firm size
Cumulated over previous 12 months
From Dec. 2006 to October 2023 (+ November 2023 provisional) (in %)
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early December 2023: final for October, provisional for November
More information on: methodology, time series, calendar
All the series published by the Banque de France are available at the following address Webstat Banque de France
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Corporate bankruptcies

STAT INFO - November 2023

Contact: 1489-contenuwebstat-ut@banque-france.fr
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