The Dutch bankruptcy rate is rising faster than anywhere else in the world, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday, quoting credit insurance company Euler Hermes.

This year, some 8,100 companies are forecast to go bankrupt, a rise of 75% on 2008, the paper says.
The sharp increase is largely because the recession hit the Netherlands relatively late. ‘This is a consequence of the above average growth in spring 2008,’ said risk management director Walter Toemen. The number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands rose just 1% in 2008, the paper says.
The Euler Hermes report also shows that the Netherlands now has 100,000 more companies than it did in 2003, well above the European average.