Overall, bankruptcies decreased by 12 percent in August compared to the same month of the previous year, according to new statistics from Creditsafe. For the first eight months of the year, the general decline is seven percent. Within e-commerce and retail, a decrease is visible over the entire year, although both industries recorded an increase during August.
So far this year, e-commerce bankruptcies have decreased by 21 percent, from 174 to 137 companies. This makes e-commerce the sector with the largest percentage decrease of the mapped industries. Retail also shows a decrease of 16 percent during the same period, with a total of 587 bankruptcies compared to 696 last year. However, during the single month of August, the number of e-commerce bankruptcies increased by 21 percent and retail bankruptcies by 7 percent.
After several tough years marked by the pandemic, energy crisis, inflation shock and high interest rates, we are now seeing that the pressure on Swedish companies is beginning to ease. The economic climate is slowly moving in the right direction and if it continues to strengthen, there is much to suggest that the decline in bankruptcies will persist for a good time to come, says Henrik Jacobsson, CEO of Creditsafe.
Despite the declining levels, some larger bankruptcies were registered during the month. Among these is the bicycle company Accell Sweden AB in Varberg, a player in retail with a turnover of 167 million kronor and 13 employees.
At the same time as bankruptcies decrease, the statistics show an increase in new business start-ups. During August, 2,961 new limited companies were registered in Sweden, which corresponds to an increase of eight percent compared to the previous year. So far this year, the number of new limited companies has increased by 15 percent.