Corporate bankruptcies Oct 2023

Published on 15 November 2023

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On a year-to-date basis, the number of corporate bankruptcies rose in October, but remained below its pre-pandemic average

At the end of October, the number of corporate bankruptcies aggregated over twelve months is still increasing (to reach 52,695, see Figure 1).
This figure reflects a catch-up trend that concerns all sectors of the economy (see Table A) however heterogeneously. It also applies to all sizes of company, but is less pronounced for microenterprises and indeterminate size (see Table B). The growth in corporate bankruptcies (the "catch-up" effect) slowed down (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)
	2019	Sep. 23	Sep. 23/Sep. 22	Sep. 23/2019	Oct. 22	Oct. 23 prov.	Oct. 23/Oct. 22	Oct. 23/2019
Business sector
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ)	1,414	1,240	12.8%	-12.3%	1,156	1,163	0.6%	-17.8%
Industry (BE)	3,436	3,783	43.8%	10.1%	2,763	3,826	38.5%	11.4%
Construction (FZ)	11,089	10,540	36.9%	-5.0%	7,930	10,926	37.8%	-1.5%
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)	11,137	11,190	34.5%	0.5%	8,664	11,468	32.4%	3.0%
Transportation and storage (H)	2,097	2,032	25.7%	-3.1%	1,675	2,063	23.2%	-1.6%
Accommodation and food service activities (I)	6,840	7,182	57.5%	5.0%	4,852	7,371	51.9%	7.8%
Information and communication (JZ)	1,277	1,584	46.5%	24.0%	1,125	1,609	43.0%	26.0%
Financial and insurance activities (KZ)	1,086	1,231	42.1%	13.4%	898	1,261	40.4%	16.1%
Real estate activities (LZ)	1,631	1,706	34.9%	4.6%	1,310	1,758	34.2%	7.8%
Advisory & Business support activities (MN)	5,813	5,952	31.3%	2.4%	4,664	6,102	30.8%	5.0%
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (P to S)	5,140	5,070	39.9%	-1.4%	3,727	5,070	36.0%	-1.4%
All firms (b)	51,145	51,588	38.0%	0.9%	38,842	52,695	35.7%	3.0%

Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early November 2023: final for September, provisional for October.

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 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	Sep. 23	Sep. 23/Sep. 22	Sep. 23/2019	Oct. 22	Oct. 23 prov.	Oct. 23/Oct. 22	Oct. 23/2019
Size
SME, among them	51,118	51,536	38.0%	0.8%	38,816	52,641	35.6%	3.0%
Micro-enterprises and unknown firm's size	48,702	47,448	35.5%	-2.6%	36,304	48,415	33.4%	-0.6%
Very small firms	1,527	2,555	71.9%	67.3%	1,590	2,639	66.0%	72.8%
Small firms	651	1,147	75.9%	76.2%	695	1,192	71.5%	83.1%
Medium-size firms	238	386	84.7%	62.2%	227	395	74.0%	66.0%
ISE - Large Firms	27	52	100.0%	92.6%	26	54	107.7%	100.0%
All firms	51,145	51,588	38.0%	0.9%	38,842	52,695	35.7%	3.0%

C - Changes in corporate bankruptcies

1 - Number of bankruptcies
Cumulated over previous 12 months
From Dec. 1991 to September 2023 (+ October 2023 provisional)

Note: The dotted green curve represents the average value of the number of corporate bankruptcies over twelve months observed monthly between December 1991 and December 2019. The orange curve represents this average level over the period January 2010 - December 2019, which is a high for the observation period.

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 September 2023 (+ October 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 September 2023 (+ October 2023 provisional) (in %)

Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early November 2023: final for September, provisional for October

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 - October 2023

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

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Updated on 15 November 2023