The number of companies sinking into insolvency across the Netherlands, one of the European Union’s top five economies, has risen sharply in the first quarter of 2023 amid soaring inflation rates and high energy costs, data from a firm that tracks bankruptcies across the country has revealed.
The data, compiled by the Faillissements Dossier, indicated that 781 companies and institutions went bankrupt in the Netherlands from January to March of 2023, compared to 506 in the first quarter last year, representing an uptick of 54.3%, the Dutch digital newspaper De Limburger reports.
During the same period, the number of cafés and restaurants that went bankrupt nearly tripled, climbing to 54.
In its report, the Faillissement Dossier attributes the spike in insolvencies in the euro zone’s fifth-largest economy to exceptionally high energy prices and inflation levels.
In March, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), a government institution that collects and publishes statistical information about the Netherlands, reported that the number of insolvencies is rising again after only a few companies went bankrupt during the COVID-19 pandemic years. The agency cites that the number of bankruptcies remained limited for quite some time mainly due to the government’s COVID-19 cash infusions designed to keep businesses afloat.
The CBS, last month, also announced that it would alter the way it measures consumer energy prices to improve inflation estimates, saying that it would begin using transaction data from energy suppliers to ascertain the real cost for consumers.
Credit insurer Atradius has forecasted that some 4,400 companies may go bankrupt across the Netherlands in 2023, an increase of nearly 80%, due to factors like high energy costs, rising inflation, and high wage demands. However, the company predicts that the number of bankruptcies this year and the following will likely fail to surpass those recorded in 2013, when the Netherlands experienced the peak of the fallout from the global economic crisis. That year, labeled the ‘disaster year,’ saw 12,306 companies sink into insolvency.
