Almost one hundred thousand self-employed people stopped their business in the Czech Republic last year

Almost one hundred thousand self-employed people stopped their business in the Czech Republic last year

In the Czech Republic, almost 100,000 self-employed people stopped their business last year and the situation continues to deteriorate. This was stated by the idnes.cz portal with reference to the data of the consulting company Bisnode A Dun & Bradstreet Company. More precisely, a total of 99,329 self-employed persons in the Czech Republic interrupted their business in 2020. This was 43% more than in 2019. The trend of business closures picked up pace in the second half of the year, Bisnode said. Compared to 2018, 65% more self-employed persons interrupted their business last year. The worst month of 2020 was January 2020, when 17,000 self-employed people interrupted their business. "But the first month of the year is usually the strongest in the long run. September and March follow, with more than 10,000 entrepreneurs temporarily hanging the business on the nail in both months," said Bisnode analyst Petra Štěpánová. In a year-on-year comparison, last September and December stand out, when the number of discontinued trades exceeded twice the numbers from previous years. Štěpánová reminded that the Czech economy collapsed last year and the prospects for the future are still uncertain. Entire segments of business are affected, companies get into existential problems, which is also reflected in the situation of self-employed people. The cessation of business activities took place mainly in production, trade and services, followed by catering and retail sale in non-specialized stores. The business was interrupted mainly by Prague self-employed persons, last year there were more than 17,000 of them. This was followed by the Central Bohemian Region (12,000) and the South Moravian Region (11,000).