The number of bankruptcies remains high in the Netherlands this year

The number of business bankruptcies in the Netherlands will increase by 38% this year to a total of 4,500, credit insurer Atradius expects.
This is mainly due to the discontinuation of government corona support, higher interest rates and a moderately performing economy.
Atradius predicts 16 percent more bankruptcies worldwide, with the Netherlands, Italy and Singapore as outliers.
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The number of business bankruptcies in the Netherlands will also increase sharply this year, with an expected increase of 38 percent on top of an increase of 48 percent last year. Credit insurer Atradius expresses this expectation in a new report.

This increase would bring the number of bankruptcies to 4,500. This is mainly due to the end of corona support, rising interest rates and a deteriorating economy.

“Since the government measures stopped in the first quarter of 2022, we have seen an increase in the number of bankruptcies. In the whole of 2023, the counter in the Netherlands stood at 3,271 bankruptcies. The numbers increased sharply, especially in the second half of that year, with an average of 300 bankruptcies per month. This trend continued in January and February of 2024,” Atradius chief economist John Lorié writes in the report.

The Netherlands will experience a relatively high number of bankruptcies in 2024

Atradius notes that the number of bankruptcies has not yet returned to pre-corona pandemic levels. A normalization is expected before 2025 and there should be a slight increase of 3 percent in the number of companies that are forced to close their doors.

Worldwide, Atradius expects a 16 percent increase in the number of bankruptcies this year.

The Netherlands is one of the countries with the strongest increase. Other countries where a significant increase is expected are Italy (63 percent), Singapore (47 percent), Portugal (34 percent), Poland (29 percent) and the United States (29 percent), according to the researchers.