MADRID: According to Price Waterhouse Coopers the number of companies entering bankruptcy proceedings in Spain during the first quarter of 2015 is reported to have been 1,344, a fall of 30% compared to the same period in Company bankruptcies decline as the Spanish economy recovers 2014 and the sixth quarter in a row in which the year-on-year comparison shows a downward trend.
The historical development of this statistic shows the effect of the economic crisis of recent years in Spain. In the first quarter of 2005 only 181 companies entered bankruptcy proceedings and the annual total was just 835, but as the slump took hold in 2008 the figures began to increase sharply. By 2013 a total of 8,730 companies were declared bankrupt, with 2,578 of them in the first quarter alone, but since the end of that year the numbers have been coming down significantly and are now back down to the level of those reported in 2010.
Over half of all the company bankruptcies in the first three months of this year were declared in the regions of Catalunya (21%), Valencia (16%) and Madrid (13%), where most companies are registered, but the numbers fell in all three areas, as they did in all 17 regions of Spain.
As for the sectors of the economy most affected, the largest totals were reported in services (321), construction (236) and real estate (256), although in the latter two areas the totals are between 28% and 30% lower than in the first quarter of last year. 70% of the companies affected had asset values of under 2 million euros, and a total of 15,968 employees were involved, 33% fewer than a year ago.
