The number of companies which went into insolvency in the first ten months of this year declined by 23.5%, to about 18,000, from 23,500 in the same period of last year, according to the National Trade Registry’s Office – ONRC.

In October, 1,316 firms went into insolvency, less than half compared to October 2013. In the first nine months, the number of insolvencies declined by 17%, to 16,700 companies, ONRC data shows.

Although the number of insolvencies is lower, they still have a strong impact in the local economy. The financial impact of the insolvencies in the first nine months, which consists of the debt which wasn’t repaid by companies that filed for the insolvency procedure, was of EUR 2.57 billion, according to debt recovery company Coface.

More than EUR 1 billion are money owed to suppliers and EUR 835 million are loans from banks which haven’t been repaid. Shareholders lost some EUR 450 million due to insolvencies and the state had to recover some EUR 225 million, Coface data shows.

“The regeneration of the economic system remains a difficult process, as Romania still suffers in terms of entrepreneurship and has few new, profitable companies,” said Constantin Coman, country manager of Coface Romania.

He added that even if the number of insolvencies declined in the first nine months of this year, the number of new companies registered declined even more.

editor@romania-insider.com