There were 32 corporate insolvencies registered in January 2021. Thereof, 17 were for companies that were active in the previous year, i.e. they either had registered employees according to the official PAYE tax registry or turnover according to VAT reports. This is a 51% decrease from January 2020. New registrations of private limited companies in January were 304, which is a 69% increase from January 2020.
Experimental statistics on insolvencies changed into a regular publication
Statistics Iceland publishes data on insolvencies for registered companies on a monthly basis. Each publication is approximately 30 days after the end of each month, at which point most of the insolvency petitions have been registered by the Directorate of Internal Revenue. Some registered companies that go insolvent have had little or no prior activity. In June 2020, Statistics Iceland started to publish exploratory statistics on the average number of employees and turnover according to VAT reports in the last full financial year before the insolvency to better capture the effects of insolvencies on the labour market and the economy.
Statistics Iceland is now adding this publication to its regular publication of insolvencies of registered companies. The industry sections F Construction and civil engineering and G Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles are in accordance with NACE Rev. 2. Tourism industries follow the definition of Eurostat. Figures will be updated monthly with an accompanying news release on a quarterly basis.
To improve timeliness for publications of new registrations, they will hence forth be updated within 10 days of the end of each month, starting with an update for new registrations in February 2021 set for 8 March. Figures for new registrations will continue to be updated on a monthly basis, without a news release. Figures for the latest month of insolvencies are preliminary and are subject to change provided additional jurisdictional information on insolvencies.
Further information in metadata on insolvencies.