More than 600 thousand Russian enterprises went out of business in 2018, as RBC reports with a reference to the data of the “FinExpertiza” audit and consulting network.

      The number of closed companies exceeded the number of those that were opened 2.14 times. More than 290 thousand enterprises opened in Russia over the year; Crimea became the leader in the number of new companies - more than 1.7 thousand enterprises opened there.

      At the same time, the number of enterprises that closed in the republic exceeded 1.6 thousand.

      The leading region in terms of the number of closed companies was Kaliningrad Oblast, where only 1.5 thousand companies opened and 6.8 thousand closed. In 80 regions of Russia, the number of closed enterprises exceeded the number of new ones. According to Vladislav Korochkin, the First Vice-president of “Opora Rossii” (“Support of Russia “), the tendency to net business closures is due to a number of reasons, including the “lack of improvement in the business climate against the background of a decline in consumer purchasing power and problems with tax administration and taxes in general”.

      Elena Trubnikova, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FinExpertiza, believes that the main difficulties for enterprises are high loan rates, lack of business skills, staff shortage and difficult access to sales markets. Besides, entrepreneurs often do not possess information about the support measures that are offered in their region, she notes.

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