French Business Failures Show 9.9% Increase in May

French business failures rose to a seasonally adjusted total of 2,384 in May, up 9.9% from April and an 11% increase from a year earlier, the National Statistics Institute reported.

The state-run data-gathering agency said the May result marked a new upward trend in business failures, which had been fluctuating erratically around 2,000 a month since the end of 1983.

The institute said bankruptcy filings were most pronounced in the service sector, continuing a trend observed in March and April.