LISBON: Company bankruptcies in Portugal rose by 7.6 percent in 2015 with a total of 7,288 folding, IGNIOS, the risk management firm said. However, the company statement said that last year’s figures were artificially heightened due to the collapse of the state juridical system, Citius IT, over a period of 2014, which led to bankruptcies getting registered in 2015.
IGNIOS concluded that without such a distortion the total numbers of bankruptcies would have remained level over the period.
The risk management firm, analysing state data found that a majority of the 7,288 bankruptcies, against the 6,773 businesses going under in 2014, came from just three districts, Lisbon (22.9 percent), Oporto (20.4 percent) and Braga (12.4 percent).
In turn, construction (17.5 percent), trade and retail (15.8 percent) and wholesale (11.6 percent) were the sectors recording the most bankruptcies. The IGNIOS data also reports the founding of 37,419 new companies in Portugal, an average rate of 102 new businesses daily and a rise of 6.1 percent year-on-year.
The report termed this “very positive” and demonstrating “proof of the economic recovery” with Lisbon (29.2 percent) and Oporto (18.6 percent) the most popular locations, with trade and retail (11.8 percent) and hotel and restaurants (11.5 percent) the most popular.