Thirty percent more bankruptcies

According to provisional figures from Statistics Netherlands, 4,150 businesses and persons were declared bankrupt in the first half of 2003. This is 30 percent more than in the same period last year, and thus continues the rising trend in the number of bankruptcies, which began in the second half of 1999. The number of bankruptcies is high in a historical perspective. Only at the beginning of the eighties were more bankruptcies declared per half-year.

Bankruptcies declared per half-year, 1980-2003

Businesses account for three-quarters of bankruptcies

Three out of every four bankruptcies in the first half of 2003 were businesses and institutions. The other quarter are private persons. Two-thirds of these private persons are aged between 25 and 45 years. Hardly any persons aged sixty or older are declared bankrupt.

Bankruptcies declared per half-year by legal form

Bankruptcies leave large debts

According to Statistics Netherlands’ figures on the financial consequences of bankruptcy proceedings completed in 2002, the unpaid debts averaged 286 thousand euro per case.

The amount of these unpaid debts differs by legal form: companies leave 400 thousand euro unpaid on average, one-man businesses 226 thousand euro and private persons nearly 80 thousand euro.

Bill Swaager