The 2024 Global Bankruptcy Report

Excerpt of the 2024 Global Bankruptcy Report

Many countries are seeing a sharp rise in business insolvencies. During 2023, a little more than half of the 45 countries/regions monitored by Dun & Bradstreet and its Worldwide Network saw an increase in business failures. Of these, 14 recorded rates of bankruptcy above pre-pandemic levels, including in the U.S., the U.K., France, and Canada. 

The few exceptions, where bankruptcies fell, have been in parts of Europe such as Italy, Spain, Türkiye, and Croatia. A confluence of factors caused this rise in businesses going under, including dwindling cash reserves, the post-Covid normalization process, prolonged pressure from higher interest rates, and soft global demand. The global economy held up better than expected in 2023 and is forecast to gradually improve through 2024.

Having soared in 2022, commodity prices moderated through 2023 on the back of softer global demand and improving supplies. Natural gas and coal prices tumbled from record highs, while base metal and agricultural goods prices also eased, though they remain vulnerable to export restrictions and adverse weather impacts. Crude oil prices fell by around 20% compared with a year earlier, and subsiding commodity pressures helped broader measures of inflation to gradually moderate through 2023. 

Similarly, underlying measures of inflation, which capture the durable part of consumer price inflation, have also steadily eased, but more slowly. On the face of it, this should have been something of a boost for businesses — lower input prices improve operating costs and, when passed on, consumers enjoy real income growth, increasing spending power.