According to information released by Statistics Iceland (Hagstofa Islands), there were 555 Icelandic companies declared bankrupt in the first 8 months of 2009, but in the first 8 months of 2008 there were just 470 companies declared bankrupt. This is equal to a 17 percent increase over the past year.
However, in August 2009 there were just a total of 12 Icelandic companies that were declared bankrupt in comparison to last year’s previous figures of 20 companies in August 2008, mbl.is reported today.
Most of the bankruptcies occurred in the construction business and many of the others were in retail and motor mechanics.
Numbers are a wonderful thing, but without the comparision numbers, they are just so much wind in the air. Give us the total number of exsiting active Icelandic companys for both Aug 2008 and Aug 2009. Then we can see what percent of the Icelandic companies went bankrupt. I say “active” to indicate real companies that pay taxes and have employees, not just a post office box.