According to data released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) on Thursday, the number of business and cooperatives formed in December 2009 was 4,177, up a staggering 56.1 percent compared to the same month in 2008.
The number of businesses that closed, however, increased by 29 percent during the same period. The net increase -- the number of new businesses minus the number closed in the same month -- was 2,642 in December 2009 but 1,486 in the same month in 2008, a whopping 77.8 percent increase. The data show that December continued an upward trend that began in October, when the number of businesses opened started increasing relative to 2008.
On an annual basis, the number of businesses opened in 2009 was 44,472, a decrease of 9.2 percent from 49,003 in 2008. The negative effects of the hard-hitting economic crisis were also seen in the amount of firms closed, as the number for 2009 was 10,395 compared to 9,578 in 2008 -- an increase of 8.5 percent. As a result, the net increase of businesses in 2009 decreased by 13.6 percent compared to 2008.
Of the 44,472 businesses and cooperatives established in 2009, 29.2 percent, or 13,012 firms, were in the trade sector. Some 35.6 percent of the firms formed in 2009 were in İstanbul, 11 percent in Ankara and 6.3 percent in İzmir. Approximately 93.4 percent of the firms launched in 2009 were limited liability companies, 4.2 percent were corporations and 2.3 percent were cooperatives.
