Business failures - France 2023Jan

At the end of January, the number of corporate bankruptcies continues to normalize, though not reaching pre-COVID levels.
  • Initiated in Fall 2021, the rise in the number of corporate bankruptcies continues. Over one year (between February 2022 and January 2023), it reaches 42,640 against 28,124 a year earlier (see Figure 1, as well as Tables A and B).

  • The number of annual corporate bankruptcies remains 17% lower than that the level recorded in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (51,145 corporate bankruptcies took place during the year 2019). 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.

  • In an instantaneous view, the number of monthly bankruptcies also remains lower in January 2023 than in January 2019 (see chart 3).

  • The process of normalization is common to all sectors of the economy (see Figure 2) and slightly more pronounced for SMEs, except for micro enterprises (see Table B and Figure 4).


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)
2019 Dec. 22 Dec. 22/Dec. 21 Dec. 22/2019 Jan. 22 Jan. 23 prov. Jan. 23/Jan. 22 Jan. 23/2019
Business sector
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) 1,414 1,183 10.4% -16.3% 1,062 1,164 9.6% -17.7%
Industry (BE) 3,436 3,005 64.9% -12.5% 1,857 3,155 69.9% -8.2%
Construction (FZ) 11,089 8,375 38.3% -24.5% 6,100 8,639 41.6% -22.1%
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) 11,136 9,152 54.7% -17.8% 6,086 9,465 55.5% -15.0%
Transportation and storage (H) 2,097 1,744 47.8% -16.8% 1,221 1,790 46.6% -14.6%
Accommodation and food service activities (I) 6,840 5,380 106.1% -21.3% 2,734 5,686 108.0% -16.9%
Information and communication (JZ) 1,277 1,184 40.3% -7.3% 875 1,226 40.1% -4.0%
Financial and insurance activities (KZ) 1,086 976 56.9% -10.1% 646 999 54.6% -8.0%
Real estate activities (LZ) 1,631 1,359 11.2% -16.7% 1,229 1,374 11.8% -15.8%
Advisory & Business support activities (MN) 5,813 4,799 31.8% -17.4% 3,682 4,908 33.3% -15.6%
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (P to S) 5,140 4,013 57.2% -21.9% 2,566 4,154 61.9% -19.2%
All firms (b) 51,145 41,249 49.4% -19.3% 28,124 42,640 51.6% -16.6%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available in early February 2023: final for December 2022, provisional for January 2023.
Calculation : Banque de France - Companies Directorate - Companies Observatory
a Aggregate number of corporate bankruptcies over the previous 12 months compared to the same aggregate one year before and in 2019 (January 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)
2019 Dec. 22 Dec. 22/Dec. 21 Dec. 22/2019 Jan. 22 Jan. 23 prov. Jan. 23/Jan. 22 Jan. 23/2019
Size
SME, among them 51,119 41,219 49.4% -19.4% 28,099 42,609 51.6% -16.6%
Micro-enterprises and unknown firm's size 48,733 38,317 46.9% -21.4% 26,541 39,583 49.1% -18.8%
Very small firms 1,487 1,814 96.3% 22.0% 966 1,882 94.8% 26.6%
Small firms 654 815 95.0% 24.6% 435 858 97.2% 31.2%
Medium-size firms 245 273 79.6% 11.4% 157 286 82.2% 16.7%
ISE - Large Firms 26 30 25.0% 15.4% 25 31 24.0% 19.2%
All firms 51,145 41,249 49.4% -19.3% 28,124 42,640 51.6% -16.6%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available in early February 2023: final for December 2022, provisional for January 2023.
Calculation : Banque de France - Companies Directorate - Companies Observatory.
a Aggregate number of corporate bankruptcies over the previous 12 months compared to the same aggregate one year before and in 2019 (January to December 2019).
C - Changes in corporate bankruptcies
1 - Number of bankruptcies
Cumulated over previous 12 months
From Dec. 1991 to December 2022 (+ January 2023 provisional)
2 - Number of bankruptcies by sector
Cumulated over previous 12 months
From Dec. 2015 to December 2022 (+ January 2023 provisional)
3 - Monthly number of bankruptcies
From Jan. 2019 to December 2022 (+ January 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 December 2022 (+ January 2023 provisional)
(in %)
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available in early February 2023 final for December 2022, provisional for January 2023.
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
Publication available for Apple and Android
Corporate bankruptcies
STAT INFO - January 2023
Contact: 1489-contenuwebstat-ut@banque-france.fr

Download the PDF version of this document

Business failures - France
  • Published on 02/15/2023
  • EN
  • PDF (1.24 MB)
Download (EN)

Published on Wednesday, February 15, 2023