KORTRIJK – Graydon has announced the monthly figures (April) of the number of bankruptcies. Last month, 841 Belgian companies filed for bankruptcy. Compared to April 2023, this represents a decrease of -1.98%. This observation is influenced, among other things, by the figures within the Brussels region (-27.08%) and in the province of Namur (-54.55%). The figures are higher within both the Walloon (+4.74%) and the Flemish regions (+1.46%). Within the Flemish region, the month of April even represents an absolute record with 487 statements. West Flanders can present more or less stable figures (3 percent fewer companies went bankrupt than in April 2023).
At provincial level, we note increasing trends this year in all provinces except the province of Antwerp (-1.92%) and Namur (-12.34%). In Flemish Brabant, the record trend that was also evident in previous months continues: with 445
statements for the first four months of this year showed another increase of +28.99%.
West Flanders (373 statements or +11.68%) and East Flanders (524 statements or +11.25%) also recorded records in the first four months of 2024. In all other provinces we see increases of more than 10% compared to the January-April period last year, but remain below the record levels we recorded a decade earlier. By way of comparison for West Flanders: in April 2014, 105 companies were referred back to square one in one month (April), in April 2024 this will be ‘only’ 65 companies.
As usual, a number of sectors remain leaders in terms of the number of failures. This concerns construction, the transport sector and the catering industry.
