The number of start-ups continued to decrease last year. A total of 13,483 new companies were registered in Latvia last year, which is 10 percent less than in 2014.
Lursoft data show that the number of new companies increased steeply in 2010 when registration rules for start-ups were changed, reducing the minimum amount of share capital for limited liability companies.
The trend has continued to this day - 8,060 or 60 percent of new companies registered in 2015 were limited liability companies with reduced share capital, of which 62 percent had a share capital of up to EUR 10.
Taking into account the low number of new companies registered in 2015 and the substantial increase in the number of liquidated companies, the actual number of companies in Latvia increased just 3,415 last year - the smallest increase since 2007.
According to Lursoft data, 14,208 new enterprises were registered in Latvia and 11,185 were liquidated nine years ago, as a result the actual number of Latvian companies rose by 3,023. At that time, the increase in the number of liquidated companies was mostly due to liquidation of companies that did not meet the requirements of the amended Commercial Law.
Most of the companies that were liquidated in 2015 were active in retail trade, wholesale trade, and construction sectors. The average age of companies liquidated in 2015 was 9.5 years.
