Nearly 2500 Firms in Bulgaria Closed Business since January

Nearly 2500 firms in Bulgaria closed up shop in the period January – end September 2012, according to data of the National Insurance Institute. Photo by empirestatefx.com

A total of 2488 companies in Bulgaria closed up shop in the period January – end September 2012, according to data of the National Insurance Institute (NSI).

Citing NSI data, Bulgarian mass-circulation daily Standard points out that the number of closed businesses increased most notably over the last three months.

The companies most probably suspended business activity due to the crisis and the deterioration of the economic situation.

Sofia registered the highest number of closed businesses, 509, followed by big cities like Burgas (225), Varna (220), Plovdiv (202), Ruse (128), and Stara Zagora (103).

Nearly 24 000 firms suspended business activity since the beginning of 2005, most of them based in big cities.

Apart from companies closing up shop, over 10 500 self-employed also suspended business activity.

According to NSI data, the number of companies and self-employed people suspending business activity increased substantially in the period July - end-September.

The number of applications for deleting insurers in these three months increased by 3507 compared to the first half of 2012.

Statistics provided by Bulgaria's National Social Security Institute is also backed by unemployment trends.

Over the past four months, the number of unemployed increased by 172.6 thousand people.

The unemployment rate is expected to reach 12.4% in 2012 from 5.6% in 2008.

The main contributor to the negative trend was agriculture, followed by the industrial sector, while the annual decrease in people employed in the processing industry started accelerating in mid-2011.

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