[German institutions: nearly 200000 European companies go bankrupt Retail and Hotel Industry is hit hardest] according to a report by Der Spiegel Weekly on the 11th, the latest report released by Creditreform, a German credit institution, shows that more and more European companies are filing for bankruptcy. In 2022, nearly 140000 companies went bankrupt in 14 Western European Union countries, as well as Norway, Switzerland and the UK, according to the report. This figure increased by 24.2% compared with the previous year. The largest increase in the number of bankrupt companies was in Austria, with an increase of 59.7% over the previous year. This was followed by the United Kingdom (55.9%), France (50%) and Belgium (41.7%). In Eastern European Union countries, the number of corporate bankruptcies increased by 53.5% compared with the same period last year, reaching more than 60, 000, with a total of nearly 200000 in Eastern and Western Europe. Individual industries were particularly hard hit: first, bankrupt companies in the retail and hotel sectors increased by 34.5 per cent, followed by construction (24.7 per cent), services (20 per cent) and manufacturing (13.1 per cent).