Almost 7,100 companies in Romania went insolvent in the first five months of this year, down 4.46 percent from the level of 7,427 companies recorded in the same period of 2012, according to the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).

Romania’s Brasov county recorded the highest number of insolvencies in the first five months of this year - 729, a year-on-year increase of 63 percent, followed by Dolj county with 629 insolvent companies - up 37.9 percent over the same period the previous year, and Bucharest - with 554 insolvency cases, down 3.3 percent compared to January-May 2012.

The only county which was free of new insolvencies was Harghita, in the first five months of 2013, while only 15 cases of insolvency were recorded in Calarasi county - down 46.4 percent over the same period in 2012, according to ONRC.

Most of the companies facing financial problems were those operating in the trade sector, followed by companies with operations in manufacturing and construction.

Some one million companies were active in Romania in late-May 2013, a year -on-year increase of up 6.4 percent, this year being registered over 52,600 companies. However, rate of new companies was down 16 percent over the previous year. Most of the companies registered in the first five months this year have operations in the trade sector - some 16,700 (up 11.9 percent), followed by the companies operating in agriculture - some 5,750 registrations (down 67 percent).

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)