Over 4,100 Romanian companies have started insolvency procedures in the first two months of this year, which was 35 percent more than in the first two months of 2008, according to data from the National Trade Registry (ONRC) quotes by Mediafax newswire.

Over 40 percent of these companies were working in the retail sector, over 16 percent, in manufacturing, while 15 percent come from the construction market segment. These market segments were the most affected last year too.

The total number of insolvent firms exceeded 18,000 last year, up on 14,700 he year before. Around one million companies are currently active in Romania.