(Bloomberg) -- German insolvencies rose in May by almost a third from a year earlier, according to data that a lobby group warns is now on track to breach a level last seen in 2017.
Results for the month showed that local courts reported 1,934 corporate insolvencies with claims of about €3.4 billion ($3.7 billion), numbers on Friday published by Germany’s statistics office showed.
The total is up 30.9% from the same period a year earlier, and preliminary data point to increases of 6.3% and 13.5% for June and July, respectively.
Germany’s economy has stalled since Russia’s attack on Ukraine cut the country off from gas deliveries on which its industry relies. Gross domestic product unexpectedly contracted in the second quarter, and growth for the whole year is predicted by the European Commission at just 0.1%.
“Warning signals on corporate insolvencies are increasing,” the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce said in a statement, adding that it expects the total number to exceed the 20,000 mark for the first time since 2017. “Relief from energy costs, taxes, bureaucracy and faster approval and planning procedures are urgently needed in order to give companies better conditions for business success again.”
--With assistance from Kristian Siedenburg.
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