The number of corporate insolvencies in Germany has fallen for the first time since February, the Federal Statistical Office said on Friday.
In May, local courts registered 1,995 applications for corporate insolvencies - 2% fewer than in the same month the previous year.
Over the longer period from January to May, however, corporate insolvencies rose by just under 5% to 10,546.
Creditor claims registered by local courts from January to May totalled around €15.4 billion ($17.77 billion), significantly less than in the same period the previous year, when it was €25.7 billion. The reason for the decline is that more large companies went insolvent in that earlier period.
Applications are only included in the statistics after the insolvency court's initial ruling. In many cases, the actual date of the insolvency filing is almost three months earlier.
There were 29.8 insolvencies per 10,000 companies from January to May. The sectors most affected were transport and storage, with 57.2 cases per 10,000 companies, followed by the hospitality industry (49.2) and construction (44).
Germany's economy has been shaken by a wave of insolvencies for some time amid a prolonged economic downturn. The credit agency Creditreform does not expect the insolvency trend to reverse until 2027.
The Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH), which analyses insolvency trends monthly, recently reported an "exceptionally high level" of corporate insolvencies in Germany in July.
Private individuals are also coming under financial pressure. In May, the number of consumer insolvencies fell by just over 10% year-on-year to 5,926, the statisticians said. From January to May, however, there was a rise of just under 2% compared with the same period the previous year, to 32,093.