522 Slovak firms faced insolvency last year

The number of firms facing insolvency went up by 3 percent year-on-year to reach 522 in 2014, making Slovakia the only country from central and eastern Europe to reach a figure seen before the recession, according to the latest analysis released by Coface. Back in the pre-crisis year of 2008, 567 cases of insolvent companies were recorded in Slovakia. "Slovakia is really the only country in the region that has reached a pre-crisis level. At the same time it needs to be said that the number of insolvency cases was again higher than what was seen over the previous three years", wrote economist Grzegorz Sielewicz of Coface in the analysis. There were 500 cases in 2011, while 2012 saw only 452 and 2013 a total of 507 cases of insolvent firms. Sielewicz further stated that this is partly due to the fact that firms in Slovakia are rather reluctant to apply for bankruptcy proceedings. "Many companies put a halt to their activities, cancelling their business or going through liquidation without officially announcing bankruptcy proceedings", wrote the economist, adding that the result of this is a considerably low number of insolvencies. Meanwhile, the number of insolvencies is predicted to fall this year. "I expect that the number of insolvencies will go down by 5 percent in Slovakia this year, which is very close to our estimate for the average regional drop in insolvencies this year of 6 percent", reads the analysis.