Austria saw the highest number of company bankruptcies in its history last year as the number of businesses going under surpassed even the levels seen during the 2008 financial crisis.
According to the Alpine Creditors Association (AKV), a total of 6,768 businesses declared bankruptcy, with only 4,156 managing to go through an organized insolvency process. This far exceeded the 3,250 bankruptcies in 2008 and 3,700 in 2009, and represented a 23 percent increase on figures reported in 2023.
The increase in bankruptcies has been linked to higher costs for materials, energy, and wages, worsened by the economic recession caused by climate policies and sanctions on Russia. These financial struggles have led to many business closures, rising unemployment, and slowing economic growth, affecting consumer confidence and real estate markets.
Adding to the crisis, the AKV reported a 20.81 percent increase in rejected insolvency applications because of insufficient assets, with 2,612 cases unable to proceed due to a lack of funds.
The total financial damage was also record-breaking, with company liabilities reaching €19.55 billion — up from €16.75 billion in 2023. Some of the largest corporate failures in terms of debt include KTM AG (€2.74 billion), Rene Benko (€2.43 billion), the Benko family private foundation (€2.28 billion), and Fisker (€1.54 billion).
Additionally, 2024 saw many failed restructuring attempts. Notable companies such as furniture chain Kika/Leiner, biomass boiler supplier Windhager Group, and real estate developers Imfarr Beteiligungs GmbH and Signa Prime Selection, were unable to recover and had to shut down.
These bankruptcies have directly impacted Austria’s workforce, with 22,887 more unemployed people by the end of 2024 compared to the previous year.
Private bankruptcies remained steady at around 8,800 cases.
The ongoing recession and increasing bankruptcies suggest that 2025 could bring even more economic hardship, with the AKV expressing concerns that “the declines in production and investment due to the real estate crisis have spread to the commercial and industrial sectors.”
“The uncertainty in the labor market is making people more cautious about spending, which is speeding up the economic downturn,” it adds, predicting that the number of bankruptcies will continue to rise until at least mid-2025.
Arresting the crisis will undoubtedly be one of the priorities of any coalition agreement between the right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the center-right People’s Party (ÖVP) currently being negotiated.
Earlier this week, Remix News reported how FPÖ and ÖVP leaders presented a €6.3 billion budgetary agreement designed to avert an EU deficit procedure, ensuring the country’s financial stability without introducing new taxes.
The wider economic issues affecting the country stem from significant public debt and a widening deficit, which the economic think tank Wifo predicts will increase to 4.2 percent this year without corrective action. This filters down to business confidence and the wider economic climate.
FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl announced that the proposed measures to address the budget deficit and provide much-needed funds to stimulate the economy include closing tax loopholes used by multinational corporations and reducing costs and bureaucracy within government ministries.
“Even if we first have to clear away this financial shambles that we did not cause: only the timeline has changed, not the implementation path. We take responsibility and have therefore put together a €6.39 billion euro package of measures to ensure our republic’s budget sovereignty — 86 percent of the volume does not come from tax measures, but from the expenditure side,” added FPÖ budget and finance spokesman Hubert Fuchs at a press conference in Vienna on Thursday.
