The Trade Registry figures released Friday by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) showed that the number of liquidated companies dropped by 42.6 percent in February compared to January of this year. The number of newly established companies declined by 16.49 percent in February over the first month. Meanwhile, the number of newly established cooperative enterprises declined by 32.1 percent in February over January, while the number of liquidated cooperatives decreased notably, by 62.6 percent.
Under the strain of the global credit crunch, the number of companies opened in Turkey in the first quarter of 2009 was down by 30.7 percent over the same period of the previous year, while the number of cooperative enterprises established fell by 36.7 percent in the same period. When compared with the same month of 2009, this February saw a 22.3 percent increase in the number of newly established businesses, while the number of newly opened cooperatives increased by a drastic 76.1 percent in the same period. The number of companies that closed increased by 21.38 percent in February 2010 over the second month of 2009, while the number of liquidated cooperatives was up by 8.7 percent in the given period.
Of the 2,608 newly established firms and cooperatives in February, 1,183 were in the retail sector, 718 were in manufacturing and 707 were in construction. A total of 387 companies and cooperatives closed in the retail industry in February, while the manufacturing sector lost 190 and the construction sector lost 189 businesses and cooperatives in the same month.
