Every day, 19 companies in Austria go bankrupt. This means they cannot pay their bills. In the first 6 months of 2026, there were 3,401 bankruptcies. This is a bit less than the year before. Experts say: The situation is still serious.
A big problem is the lack of money. Some companies have less than 4,000 Euro. This money is needed for a legal process. The number of these cases is growing. The people who are owed money get nothing back. This also hurts healthy companies.
Restaurants suffer a lot. Bankruptcies in this area grew by 8 percent. Energy and staff are too expensive. Many construction and shop businesses also fail. In Carinthia, more companies failed than before. In Tyrol, there were fewer bankruptcies.
Half of all bankruptcies happened in Vienna. But the total debt is lower. There are fewer big problems with real estate firms. One famous case is a foundation of René Benko. It has 1.7 billion Euro in debt.
Small shops also have problems. A hairdresser from Klagenfurt closed his shop. He found not enough staff. Now his employees want to take over. People have fewer problems with their private debt right now.
