The number of German companies filing for insolvency fell further in the first half of the year after reaching a record low in 2015, as Europe’s biggest economy enjoys a prolonged upswing, data showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The number of companies registering as insolvent fell by 5% to some 11,000 compared to the first six months in the previous year, the Federal Statistics Office said. The sum of probable claims by creditors of insolvent firms nearly doubled to €16.5 billion ($18.5 billion), however, because there were several big companies among the overall fewer firms that filed for insolvency, the office said. The number of personal bankruptcies also declined, going down roughly 3% to 39,228. The German economy grew by 0.7% in the first quarter and by 0.4% in the second, mainly driven by strong private consumption and higher state spending. Leading economic institutes are a bit more optimistic with a predicted growth rate of 1.9% this year which would be the strongest in five years.
