Associated Press

Amsterdam, February 5

More companies went bankrupt in the Netherlands last year than in any recorded year, the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics said today.

More than 8,700 companies failed, about 30 per cent more than a year earlier and passing 1982 as the worst year for Dutch businesses. Together, they represented around one per cent of the total number of registered firms, and they went under were relatively older than in recent years, according to the agency.

"This is linked to the faltering economic growth in our country," the CBS said. It said medium and small businesses accounted for most of the bankruptcies. Rental and business service companies were hardest-hit, along with agricultural companies, hotels and restaurants. Failures in the health and education sector were relatively rare, the CBS said. After years of rapid growth in the late 1990s, the Netherlands suffered more than some of its European neighbors from the recent downturn in the global economy.