Business failures - France 2024Jan

Published on the 15th of February 2024

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At the end of January, the number of corporate bankruptcies is still rising, even if it remains below its pre-pandemic average
  • At the end of January, the number of corporate bankruptcies aggregated over twelve months reaches 56,290 (see Figure 1).


  • The number of annual corporate bankruptcies is still below 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.


    •
  • This figure reflects a catch-up trend that concerns all sectors of the economy (see Table A) however heterogeneously. It also applies to all company sizes (see Table B).


  • However, the rate of increase of corporate bankruptcies over one year has been slowing steadily since January 2023 (see Figure 2).
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)
Mean 2010-2019 Dec. 23 Dec. 23/Dec. 22 Dec. 23/2010-2019 Jan. 23 Jan. 24 prov. Jan. 24/Jan. 23 Jan. 24/2010-2019
Business sector
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) 1,359 1,266 4.6% -6.8% 1,231 1,227 -0.3% -9.7%
Industry (BE) 4,442 3,923 30.7% -11.7% 3,169 3,867 22.0% -12.9%
Construction (FZ) 14,684 11,735 39.6% -20.1% 8,722 11,904 36.5% -18.9%
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) 13,070 12,042 31.5% -7.9% 9,502 12,153 27.9% -7.0%
Transportation and storage (H) 1,901 2,273 30.6% 19.6% 1,793 2,293 27.9% 20.6%
Accommodation and food service activities (I) 7,374 7,809 45.5% 5.9% 5,697 7,805 37.0% 5.8%
Information and communication (JZ) 1,480 1,714 45.5% 15.8% 1,224 1,721 40.6% 16.3%
Financial and insurance activities (KZ) 1,150 1,335 37.2% 16.1% 1,001 1,347 34.6% 17.1%
Real estate activities (LZ) 1,984 1,947 43.9% -1.9% 1,407 1,991 41.5% 0.4%
Advisory & Business support activities (MN) 6,380 6,487 35.7% 1.7% 4,924 6,630 34.6% 3.9%
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (P to S) 5,311 5,393 33.5% 1.5% 4,258 5,279 24.0% -0.6%
All firms (b) 59,342 55,996 35.6% -5.6% 43,008 56,290 30.9% -5.1%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early February 2024: final for December, provisional for January.



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)
Mean 2010-2019 Dec. 23 Dec. 23/Dec. 22 Dec. 23/2010-2019 Jan. 23 Jan. 24 prov. Jan. 24/Jan. 23 Jan. 24/2010-2019
Size
SME, among them 59,309 55,940 35.6% -5.7% 42,980 56,234 30.8% -5.2%
Micro-enterprises and unknown firm's size 56,054 51,407 33.8% -8.3% 40,022 51,625 29.0% -7.9%
Very small firms 2,011 2,800 57.0% 39.2% 1,845 2,846 54.3% 41.5%
Small firms 914 1,299 65.3% 42.1% 831 1,315 58.2% 43.9%
Medium-size firms 330 434 66.9% 31.5% 282 448 58.9% 35.8%
ISE - Large Firms 33 56 115.4% 69.7% 28 56 100.0% 69.7%
All firms 59,342 55,996 35.6% -5.6% 43,008 56,290 30.9% -5.1%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early February 2024: final for December, provisional for January.



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 December 2023 (+ January 2024 provisional)
Note: The orange line represents the average value of the number of corporate bankruptcies over twelve months observed monthly between February 2010 and January 2019.
2 - Change in number of bankruptcies


Annual year-on-year change

From Dec. 1991 to December 2023 (+ January 2024 provisional)

 (in %)




3 - Monthly number of bankruptcies

From Jan. 2019 to December 2023 (+ January 2024 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 2023 (+ January 2024 provisional) (in %)
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early February 2024: final for December, provisional for January
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 - January 2024

Contact: 1489-contenuwebstat-ut@banque-france.fr
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Updated on the 14th of February 2024