Business failures - France - 2024-07

Published on 16 August 2024

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At the end of July, Slight rise in the cumulative number of corporate bankruptcies over the last twelve months
  • At the end of July, the provisional cumulative number of corporate bankruptcies aggregated over the last twelve months amounted to 63,095 compared with 62,015 the previous month (see graph 1).

  • On an annual basis, the increase in the cumulative number of corporate bankruptcies over the last twelve months continued to fall, rising by 25.2% in July, compared with 25.6% in June and 26.7% in May (see Table A).

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  • This trend concerns most sectors of the economy (see table A) and the various sizes of company (see table B).

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  • The number of cases referred to the Credit Mediation Service has not increased.

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  • Public services and those of the Banque de France are mobilised to help companies in difficulty.
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 June 24 June 24/June 23 June 24/2010-2019 July 23 July 24 prov. July 24/July 23 July 24/2010-2019
Business sector
Agriculture, forestry and fishing (AZ) 1,359 1,382 10.3% 1.7% 1,235 1,381 11.8% 1.6%
Industry (BE) 4,442 4,118 13.7% -7.3% 3,714 4,172 12.3% -6.1%
Construction (FZ) 14,684 13,682 36.6% -6.8% 10,259 13,915 35.6% -5.2%
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G) 13,070 13,181 21.6% 0.8% 10,995 13,452 22.3% 2.9%
Transportation and storage (H) 1,901 2,664 34.9% 40.1% 2,009 2,759 37.3% 45.1%
Accommodation and food service activities (I) 7,374 8,235 20.4% 11.7% 6,999 8,361 19.5% 13.4%
Information and communication (JZ) 1,480 1,832 23.5% 23.8% 1,527 1,871 22.5% 26.4%
Financial and insurance activities (KZ) 1,150 1,551 36.5% 34.9% 1,163 1,611 38.5% 40.1%
Real estate activities (LZ) 1,984 2,408 45.8% 21.4% 1,661 2,458 48.0% 23.9%
Advisory & Business support activities (MN) 6,380 7,264 29.3% 13.9% 5,768 7,398 28.3% 16.0%
Education, human health and social work services, Arts, entertainment and recreation, Other service activities (P to S) 5,311 5,618 15.2% 5.8% 4,990 5,632 12.9% 6.0%
All firms (b) 59,342 62,015 25.6% 4.5% 50,400 63,095 25.2% 6.3%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early August 2024: final for June, provisional for July.
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 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 June 24 June 24/June 23 June 24/2010-2019 July 23 July 24 prov. July 24/July 23 July 24/2010-2019
Size
SME, among them 59,309 61,957 25.6% 4.5% 50,343 63,035 25.2% 6.3%
Micro-enterprises and unknown firm's size 56,055 56,780 24.4% 1.3% 46,491 57,768 24.3% 3.1%
Very small firms 2,011 3,226 41.5% 60.4% 2,385 3,280 37.5% 63.1%
Small firms 913 1,479 41.7% 62.0% 1,101 1,496 35.9% 63.9%
Medium-size firms 330 472 30.7% 43.0% 366 491 34.2% 48.8%
ISE - Large Firms 33 58 9.4% 75.8% 57 60 5.3% 81.8%
All firms 59,342 62,015 25.6% 4.5% 50,400 63,095 25.2% 6.3%
Source: Banque de France - database: Fiben. Data available early August 2024: final for June, provisional for July.
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 June 2024 (+ July 2024 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 June 2024 (+ July 2024 provisional)
(in %)




3 - Monthly number of bankruptcies
Mean 2010-2019 and from Jan. 2020 to June 2024 (+ July 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 June 2024 (+ July 2024 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 0.84%. 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 July, 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 August 2024: final for June, provisional for July.
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 - July 2024
Contact: 1489-contenuwebstat-ut@banque-france.fr
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EN_SI_defaillances_202407_EN.pdf
EN_SI_defaillances_202407_EN.pdf (PDF - 1 Mo)

Updated on 14 August 2024