Bankruptcies on the rise but remain low

Corrected for hearing days, Dutch courts declared 71 businesses bankrupt in May. That is an increase compared to the months before but still well below the period before the coronavirus pandemic hit the Netherlands, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported on Monday.

Bankruptcies in the Netherlands peaked in May 2013 at 911 and then decreased until August 2017. After that, the number of bankruptcies remained reasonably stable at between 300 and 400 per month until mid-2020. During the pandemic, bankruptcies declined to a record low in August 2021. Government support measures helped many companies survive the pandemic, including some who wouldn't have survived under normal circumstances.

Not corrected for hearing days, 210 companies and institutions were declared bankrupt in May. The highest number of bankruptcies was in the retail trade sector at 43, 19 more than in April. Trade is also one of the sectors with the most companies. Relatively speaking, most bankruptcies happened in the transport and storage sector last month.