Economic crisis deepens: Number of companies closing in Turkey is rising

The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) has published statistics on companies established and closed in August. 

According to the data, in August, the number of newly established companies decreased by 4.5 percent, the number of sole proprietorships by 0.6 percent, and the number of cooperatives by 21.4 percent compared to the previous month. In the same period, the number of closed companies fell by 37.5 percent, sole proprietorships by 28.7 percent, and cooperatives by 39 percent.

Compared to August of last year, the number of newly established companies declined by 11.7 percent, cooperatives by 38.4 percent, and sole proprietorships by 5.1 percent. 

During this period, while the number of closed companies increased by 5.7 percent, there was a decrease of 18.7 percent in the number of cooperatives and 28.6 percent in sole proprietorships.

In August, company formations took place in all provinces. A total of 9 thousand 482 companies and cooperatives were established. Of these, 85.9 percent were limited companies, 11.9 percent were joint-stock companies, and 2.2 percent were cooperatives. 35.9 percent of the established companies were located in Istanbul, 11.1 percent in Ankara, and 7.1 percent in Izmir.

The sectoral distribution of the established companies showed that 3 thousand 96 were active in trade, 1373 in manufacturing, and 1258 in the construction sector. 

It was recorded that 650 of the closed companies and cooperatives were in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector, 240 in manufacturing, and 198 in the construction sector.

In August, 210 cooperatives were also established; 132 of these operated in the field of housing construction, 40 in business, 13 in agricultural development, and 13 in tourism development cooperatives.

Of the 658 companies with foreign partner capital established last month, 406 were Turkish-partnered, 29 were Iranian-partnered, and 25 were German-partnered. In the January-August period of this year, the number of established companies decreased by 14.2 percent compared to the same period last year, falling to 71 thousand 661, while the number of closed companies rose by 25.4 percent to 16 thousand 634.