UC points to higher food and commodity prices as a result of the Ukraine war as factors that are now hitting, after several years of pressure from pandemic effects.
Higher prices for petrol, electricity as well as component shortages and logistical bottlenecks are other factors driving the development, according to Johanna Blomé.
“Inflation is sky-high and interest rates will rise in installments. We need to be prepared for the positive market spiral we have seen after the pandemic to turn around and we are once again heading for tougher times,” she writes.
The number of bankruptcies in three industries is particularly clearly increasing: trade in motor vehicles, transport and security and real estate services.
“This is an industry with low margins that is very sensitive to the economy, which we now probably already see the consequences of,” Blomé writes about the haulage industry.
“The security and real estate service industry is also an industry with many smaller entrepreneurs with lower margins,” she adds.
At the same time, UC sums up the number of bankruptcies during the period January – May this year to the lowest for the corresponding period of ten years. Compared with May last year, the number of bankruptcies is a total of 2 percent lower.
The decline in the number of bankruptcies is particularly clear in industries such as hotels and restaurants and in the construction industry, according to UC.