Breaking Point: The Escalating Trend of Bankruptcy Rates
Excerpt of the 2023 Global Bankruptcy Report
Nearly three-fifths of the 48 countries monitored by Dun & Bradstreet and its Worldwide Network witnessed an increase in business failures during 2021. Of these, 13 registered the highest bankruptcy filings since the turn of the decade. In 2022, the global economy was on the mend, but then it was struck by two further shocks: the Russia-Ukraine crisis and monetary policy tightening. The fallout from these events had far-reaching implications that derailed the progress of economic growth and elevated the likelihood of bankruptcy across the board.
Ensuing supply chain disruptions and sanctions on Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine, triggered a massive spike in the prices of energy, food, metals, and minerals. Prices of key commodities such as aluminum, zinc, coal, natural gas, urea, palm oil, soybean oil, soybean meal, maize, and wheat rose to their highest levels ever. As the prices of other key commodities such as brent crude oil, iron, copper, and nickel also increased significantly, the world witnessed a widespread surge in inflation.
This unprecedented price escalation persisted across several major countries, spanning from the U.K., where it peaked at three decades, to Canada, the U.S., France, Spain, and Italy, where it peaked at four decades, to Germany, where it peaked at five.
This was a double whammy for businesses. On one hand, rising input costs hurt the bottom line of businesses, while on the other, the increase in energy and food bills created a cost-of-living crisis for billions of people across the world. As consumers scaled back on discretionary spending, businesses struggled to maintain their revenue streams, thereby impacting their top line as well.
How This Report Is Created
The data compiled for the 2023 Global Bankruptcy Report has been analyzed and edited by Dun & Bradstreet’s Country Insight team of experienced economists. The following Worldwide Network members contributed with their local bankruptcy data to allow the creation of this report: Altares, CIAL Dun & Bradstreet, CRIF, D&B Hong Kong, D&B India, D&B Indonesia, D&B SAME, D&B Singapore, D&B Taiwan, Dun & Bradstreet U.S./Canada, Dun & Bradstreet U.K., Dun & Bradstreet Europe, D&B China, Illion, Informa, Interfax, NICE D&B, and TSR. The full report is available here.
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