Number of bankruptcies doubles

The number of bankruptcies in the Romanian economy has doubled in the first half of this year compared with the corresponding period of 2004, a survey by Coface Intercredit company, specialising in credit risk management, shows. The number of bankruptcies in the economy in the first six months of this year amounted to 3,510, which is almost twice as high as in the previous years, Coface says. The number of bankruptcies registered in the whole of last year stood at 3,982. The structure of bankruptcies in relation to economic sectors did not undergo any major changes, with the sectors seeing the most companies go out of business being the trade, agriculture and the food industry. The trade sector accounts for almost one third of the number of bankruptcies registered, which is explained by the increase in the number of supermarkets and hypermarkets, which have gained some of the market from small traders. Mor eover, the high number of bankruptcies in the agriculture sector might be primarily due to the continuation of the restructuring process in this field. ZF