12 thousand companies created in Portugal this year

The creation of businesses increased in the first three months of the year, especially in March. The new companies are mainly in the services sector. Insolvencies are in decline.

In the first quarter of this year 11,338 companies and other organizations were constituted in Portugal, an increase of 7% over the same period last year, according to today's announcement by the Informa D & B barometer.

According to this barometer, "a strong growth in the constitution of new companies in the month of March (18.9%), following an undefined trend in January and February" contributed for this value.

In the same quarter there was a reduction of closures (down 2.2%), which maintains the trend of the last months of 2016.

Insolvencies decreased by 23% year-on-year, reinforcing the downward trend since 2013.

The percentage of companies meeting the agreed payment deadlines remained at 17.6%, as at the end of 2016.

According to the Informa D & B barometer, in the last 12 months the ratio of births/closings of companies was 2.3.

In year-on-year terms, services was the sector with the highest births of companies, with 3,458 births, an 11.9% increase.

The sector with the most closures was also that of services, with 957 closures, corresponding to 3.6% less than in the same period last year.

The Lisbon district recorded the highest number of company births, with 3,874 new companies, but also of closures, with a total of 1,178.

Porto was the second district, with 2,087 births of companies and 582 closures.

The average business start-up between January and March was of 131 per day.