Record number of bankruptcies in Flanders in the summer months | Interior

Across Belgium, 1,133 bankruptcy judgments were issued in July and August: up 22.9 per cent on last year.

For Brussels, too, there was a further increase in the summer months (+32 percent to 181), so this is a trend break from previous months when the number of bankruptcies fell, says Graydon. In Wallonia, 269 companies were declared bankrupt, an increase of 26 percent.

The construction sector remains particularly vulnerable: since the beginning of this year, 1,367 construction companies have been declared bankrupt, an all-time record. The transportation sector also recorded a new record, with 420 people bankrupt since the beginning of this year. In third place is the trade in cars and garages (238 bankruptcies).

Remarkably, more and more start-ups are going bankrupt, a phenomenon that can be attributed almost entirely to Flanders, says Graydon. It appears that “companies of zero to four years of age account for 46.7 percent of the total number of bankruptcies.” On the one hand, because many of these companies were founded just before the emergence of Corona, and therefore did not have the necessary “cushions” to get through that difficult period. On the other hand, because of the fraudulent companies hunt launched by the Brussels Business Court.