Business failures - France - 2025-01

Published on the 20th of February 2025

At the end of January, the cumulative rise in the number of corporate bankruptcies over 12 months continues to slow down
  • At the end of January 2025, the cumulative number of corporate bankruptcies (provisional data) stood at 65,844 (see graph 1), an increase of 14.8% year-on-year (see chart 2). This increase is partly due to a catch-up effect following the sharp slowdown in insolvencies during the covid period (2020-2021).

  • At the end of December, the number of insolvencies (revised data) stood at 66,121, corresponding to an annual increase of 17.4%.

  • The deceleration in the annual rate of increase was uniform across all business sizes and most sectors (see tables A and B). The number of corporate bankruptcies among intermediate-sized enterprises (ISEs) and large companies has stabilized, but remains higher than its pre-pandemic average.

  • The public services and those of the Banque de France remain mobilised to help companies in difficulty.


  • The corporate population is growing; according to INSEE, 1.11 million businesses were created at the end of January over a sliding 12-month period, up 4% compared with the cumulative 12 months to the end of January 2024.
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. 24 Dec. 24/Dec. 23 Dec. 24/2010-2019 Jan. 24 Jan. 25 prov. Jan. 25/Jan. 24 Jan. 25/2010-2019
Business sector
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) 1,359 1,446 10.7% 6.4% 1,326 1,376 3.8% 1.3%
Industry (BE) 4,442 4,259 8.3% -4.1% 3,926 4,264 8.6% -4.0%
Construction (FZ) 14,684 14,785 25.1% 0.7% 12,115 14,755 21.8% 0.5%
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) 13,071 13,822 14.5% 5.7% 12,315 13,680 11.1% 4.7%
Transportation and storage (H) 1,901 2,992 30.8% 57.4% 2,320 3,016 30.0% 58.7%
Accommodation and food service activities (I) 7,374 8,578 9.7% 16.3% 7,879 8,664 10.0% 17.5%
Information and communication (JZ) 1,480 1,997 16.2% 34.9% 1,739 2,009 15.5% 35.7%
Financial and insurance activities (KZ) 1,150 1,693 27.3% 47.2% 1,363 1,670 22.5% 45.2%
Real estate activities (LZ) 1,984 2,599 32.7% 31.0% 2,047 2,555 24.8% 28.8%
Advisory & Business support activities (MN) 6,379 7,905 20.9% 23.9% 6,774 7,864 16.1% 23.3%
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (P to S) 5,311 5,953 9.1% 12.1% 5,485 5,899 7.5% 11.1%
All firms (b) 59,342 66,121 17.4% 11.4% 57,362 65,844 14.8% 11.0%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early February 2025: final for December 2024, provisional for January 2025.
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 mean.
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. 24 Dec. 24/Dec. 23 Dec. 24/2010-2019 Jan. 24 Jan. 25 prov. Jan. 25/Jan. 24 Jan. 25/2010-2019
Size
SME, among them 59,309 66,056 17.5% 11.4% 57,302 65,778 14.8% 10.9%
Micro-enterprises and unknown firm's size 56,055 60,696 17.0% 8.3% 52,763 60,416 14.5% 7.8%
Very small firms 2,011 3,332 20.4% 65.7% 2,874 3,339 16.2% 66.0%
Small firms 913 1,521 25.1% 66.6% 1,248 1,534 22.9% 68.0%
Medium-size firms 330 507 34.5% 53.6% 417 489 17.3% 48.2%
ISE - Large Firms 33 65 8.3% 97.0% 60 66 10.0% 100.0%
All firms 59,342 66,121 17.4% 11.4% 57,362 65,844 14.8% 11.0%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early February 2025: final for December 2024, provisional for January 2025.
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 mean.







C - Changes in corporate bankruptcies
1 - Number of bankruptcies



Cumulated over previous 12 months
From Dec. 1991 to December 2024 (+ January 2025 provisional)
Note: The orange 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 December 2024 (+ January 2025 provisional)
(in %)




3 - Monthly number of bankruptcies


Mean 2010-2019 and from Jan. 2020 to December 2024 (+January 2025 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 2024 (+ January 2025 provisional)
(in %)
Note: the sharp rise in the weighting of outstanding loans in the Very small businesses category from April 2024 is due to a legal unit, classified in this category due to its small size. Without this legal unit, the weight of Very small businesses failures in terms of outstanding loans would be equal to 0.86%. For small businesses, the rise is due both to an increase in the number of bankruptcies and to an increase in the average loan outstanding. Over the month of January, it was further strengthened by the default of a small corporate with significant outstandings in this category.

Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early February 2025: final for December 2024, provisional for January 2025.








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STAT INFO - January 2025



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Updated on the 19th of February 2025