Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) – Despite the economic turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine, fewer companies went bankrupt in Hesse in the first half of 2022 than a year earlier. At 61, the insolvency rate – the number of bankruptcies per 10,000 companies – was slightly below the figure for the first six months of the previous year (63), according to data released on Tuesday by the credit agency Creditreform.

However, Hesse is far above the national average of 48 and has the third highest insolvency rate of the 16 federal states after Berlin (79) and Bremen (77). According to the information, the fewest bankruptcies per 10,000 companies in the first half of the current year were in Bavaria (36), Saxony (37) and Thuringia (39).

Nationwide, there has been no wave of bankruptcies despite the new challenges for the German economy – on the contrary: from January up to and including June, Creditreform counted 7,300 bankruptcy applications from companies after 7,510 in the same period last year. “Despite more than two years of Corona and the recent massive cost explosion, there has been no increase in insolvencies,” summarized the head of Creditreform economic research, Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch. However, the burdens caused by rising energy prices, for example, would probably not have hit with full force. However, a dramatic wave of bankruptcies is not to be expected in the second half of 2022 either.