Number of newly-found businesses in Germany declines in 2018

BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of newly founded businesses in Germany fell by 1.3 percent year-on-year to a total of more than 542,500 in 2018, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Thursday.

According to Destatis, 122,700 businesses with a "legal form and number of employees" that indicated greater economic significance were founded in 2018. This was 2.2 percent less than in 2017.

With 169,100, the number of newly-found small businesses was also below the previous year's figure. The number of newly-founded small part-time businesses, on the other hand, rose slightly by 0.6 percent to around 250,700, according to Destatis.

"The overall number of company registrations has fallen, particularly as a result of the positive situation on the labor market. However, this falling number does not mean that fewer start-ups have been set up," a spokesperson of the German Startups Association told Xinhua on Thursday.

Since every startup required a company registration but not every company registration was a startup, "the number of promising start-ups by well-trained founders is not decreasing", the spokesperson of the German startups association added.

In order to improve the financial situation of startups, the German Development Bank (KfW) recently introduced a special promotional loan program that will be available from July onwards.

KfW executive board member Ingrid Hengster had previously estimated a financing gap in the early growth phase for start-ups in Germany of 500 to 600 million euros (561 to 674 million U.S. dollars) per year.