German corporate bankruptcies have risen sharply

Data released on Tuesday by the national statistics office showed that 32,687 companies became insolvent in 2009, as Germany suffered its worst recession in 60 years.

"The general development of the figures and numbers in bankruptcy was not a surprise," said Ilja Nothnagel, an economic expert at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK).

Most of the companies affected had problems even before the global economic crisis, Nothnagel told Deutsche Welle. "It was natural that companies that were not in good shape in the first place were hit hardest."

High-profile companies succumbed to crisis

The retail group Arcandor and its mail-order unit Quelle, as well as Qimonda, the flash-memory division of chip-maker Infineon, were among the high-profile companies that went under last year. Germany's Rosenthal porcelain and Schiesser undergarments' firm also went bankrupt in 2009.

The insolvencies of these large corporations also affected the total volume of debt, which the statistics office said rose to around 85 billion euros ($116 billion) in 2009 from 33.5 billion euros one year earlier.

The rise in insolvencies last year marked the first time since 2003 that the number of filings was above the previous year's filings. In 2003, statistics recorded a high of 39,320 corporate insolvencies.

The increase in insolvency figures is bound to continue during the next months, Nothnagel said, despite the fact that Germany's economy, Europe's biggest, recorded modest growth last year.

It is important, he warned, that firms have access to capital: if a firm's liquidity is too low, it can go bankrupt despite full order books.

db/AFP/dpa/epd/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer