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German insolvencies to rise

November 29, 2012

While the number of insolvencies in Germany has been declining this year, experts have said bankruptcies will occur more often in 2013. Both the corporate sector and private households will be affected.

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Man showing there's no penny left in his pockets © Reinhold Föger #13215629
Image: Fotolia

Germany's credit reporting agency Creditreform on Thursday warned the number of insolvencies in the country would rise again in 2013, following an expected decline this year.

It said there would be about 30,500 corporate bankruptcies across Germany next year, some 1,000 more than in 2012 when insolvencies were forecast to log the lowest level since 2007, which is the year before the global financial crisis set in.

Creditreform added that the relatively low level of insolvencies this year did not translate into the level of open receivables also being low. The agency pointed out creditors had not got back 38.5 billion euros ($50 billion) as insolvencies affected also a number of really big companies.

Households not doing better

"The traces of the European sovereign debt crisis are making themselves felt increasingly," the agency's board member, Helmut Rödl, said in a statement.

He added that he expected about 350,000 people to lose their jobs this year and next year again as a direct result of bankruptcies.

Creditreform stated the retail sector had become much more stable despite some spectacular insolvencies this year, affecting drugstore chain Schlecker and mail-order giant Neckermann. Most vulnerable were courier services, discotheques and pubs, the agency reported. "Private households have also amassed more debt," Rödl maintained, putting the current figure of open receivables at 6.6 billion euros.

hg/hc (dpa, Reuters)