Thu, Apr 25th 2024
Swiss businesses with a decrease in overall bankruptcies but a sharp rise in the real estate sector.
The number of company bankruptcies in Switzerland fell at the start of the year. In the real estate sector, however, bankruptcies rose sharply.
A total of 1559 companies went bankrupt in Switzerland between January and March, as reported by the business information service Dun & Bradstreet on Thursday.
This represents a decrease of 4% compared to the same month last year. Last year, bankruptcies had increased by 5% overall.
From a regional perspective, company bankruptcies decreased in most regions. Only in Zurich (+5%), Northwestern Switzerland (+4%) and Central Switzerland (+1%) did more companies go bankrupt than in the first quarter of 2023.
However, there is a difference depending on the sector: in the sectors with the most bankruptcies, construction and business services, the number of company bankruptcies fell by 9% and 5% respectively.
According to the report, the real estate sector experienced “a veritable bankruptcy storm” – insolvencies increased by 68%. Personal services (+14%) and trade (+8%) also performed poorly.
Slightly fewer new companies were founded at the start of the year. With 13,452 new entries in the commercial register, there were 1% fewer than in the previous year.
Start-ups fell or stagnated in all regions – with the exception of Zurich, where new start-ups increased by 2%.
©Keystone/SDA
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