During May, 811 Swedish limited companies were declared bankrupt. This represents a decrease of 12 percent compared to the same month last year, according to new statistics from Creditsafe. In total, 4,171 limited companies have gone bankrupt so far this year, which is 10 percent fewer than during the corresponding period last year.
Among the industries showing the largest decline are e-commerce and retail. So far this year, 87 e-commerce companies have been declared bankrupt. This is a decrease of 24 percent compared to 115 companies during the same period last year. Isolated to May, the trend for e-commerce was down 29 percent.
Retail also notes a downward curve. During the period January to May this year, 406 bankruptcies were registered within retail, which corresponds to a decrease of 14 percent compared to last year. For May, the decline was measured at 28 percent.
We are seeing an increasingly clear stabilization in bankruptcy statistics. Fewer companies are going bankrupt, significantly fewer employees are affected, and in May, the really large bankruptcies are also unusually rare, says Henrik Jacobsson, CEO of Creditsafe.
The fact that fewer companies are going bankrupt is also reflected in the number of employees affected. So far this year, 10,256 employees have been affected by bankruptcies, which is 47 percent fewer than during the same period last year. According to the statistics, bankruptcies are now occurring to a greater extent among smaller and medium-sized companies, where turnover levels are lower.
While some sectors, such as car retail, still have an increasing share of bankruptcies, the overall statistics indicate an improved business climate. At the same time, there is an increase in newly started businesses. During May, 4,081 new limited companies were registered with Bolagsverket, which is nine percent more than the year before. Today, there are a total of 817,000 limited companies in Sweden.