Instead, the number of start-ups reached a record high in 2022.
“In the baseline scenario, we expect the economy to grow by around 3% in 2023 and the main macroeconomic risks in 2023 are as follows: the way the second-round inflationary effects of rising commodity prices and increasing borrowing costs will be managed (both from a fiscal and a monetary point of view), the slowdown of the European economies, but also a possible non-compliance with the milestones of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), on which the avoidance of recession and the correction of the twin deficits depends“, said Diana Florescu, economic analyst at KeysFin, one of the leading providers of business information solutions in Romania.
Company registrations exceeded 150,000 for the first time in history, to 152,809 startups in 2022, 3% more than in 2021 and 13.8% above the pre-pandemic level of 134,220 reached in 2019, in line with the latest data released by the Trade Register.
By regions, the most companies established in 2022 were registered in Bucharest (29,068 or 19% of the total), Cluj (9,199 or 6% of the total) and Ilfov (7,933 companies or 5% of the total in 2022) ). At the other end of the scale, the counties of Covasna, Ialomita and Tulcea had the fewest newly registered entities, between 954 and 1,111 in 2022.
The number of companies that entered insolvency increased by 8.2% to 6,649 in 2022, 16.8% above the record-low reached in 2020, of 5,694 companies, Trade Register data also shows.
The number of suspended companies increased by 20.6% in 2022 compared to 2021, up to 15,700. Company deletions and dissolutions advanced 14.6% in 2022 compared to 2021, to 112,959, but remained 17% below the pre-pandemic level reached in 2019.
The number of active entities (PFA=authorized private individuals, and legal entities) kept the upward trend started in 2011 touching an all-time high of 1,606,310 as of December 31, 2022.