New Entries to Commercial Register in July 2015: Have we already reached the peak?
In July 2015, the number of new company formations fell slightly compared to the same period last year. As June this year was such a strong month for new company formations, this wasn’t really surprising. Therefore, a slight decline in company formations was not unexpected.
Falling number of formations in July
In July 2015, the number of new entries to the Commercial Register fell compared to July 2014. In total, around 2.5 % fewer new entries were recorded compared to the same period last year, or 93 in absolute terms. This fall is not unexpected, as June 2015 was a very strong month for new company formations. June also marked a peak in new company formations, which is why the decline in July was not surprising. It is currently very difficult to predict the trend, as the individual months are showing extreme swings compared to the prior year.
In terms of the language area split, we can see that only French-speaking Switzerland showed slight growth of 1.1 %. German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino both showed a decline in new company formations.
Strong canton of Western Switzerland
The trends in the individual cantons were very different. Only a few cantons showed any growth compared to the July 2014 results. So, for example, new entries to the Commercial Register grew in the western Switzerland cantons of Waadt (+10.2 %), Fribourg (+7 %) and Jura (+13.3 %). Many German speaking cantons showed a decline. Pleasing exceptions to this include the Solothurn (+18.9 %), Graubünden (+12.2 %) and canton of Zurich (+2.3 %). You can see the trends in the other cantons in the following table.
