In russia, Businesses Are Disappearing Faster than They Are Being Created

In 2025, russia’s corporate sector showed accelerated decline. The number of new legal entities registered in the rf fell to 173,000, which is by 20% fewer than in 2024. At the same time, business liquidations rose to 233,000 (+15%), resulting in the number of closed companies exceeding the number of newly created ones by 26%.

A decline in business activity was recorded in 60 regions of the country, including the main economic centers – moscow and st. petersburg. The worst dynamics is observed in residential construction and retail trade, sectors that are directly dependent on lending and solvency demand, which is rapidly depleting.

The reasons for the decline in the number of companies are systemic: the sharp increase in operating costs, high cost of credit resources, stricter tax compliance requirements, and counterparties’ chronic delays in payments. The combined effect of these factors effectively deprives businesses of liquidity and makes legal activity economically unviable.

This dynamics indicates a structural contraction of the corporate sector in the rf. Tighter fiscal control, combined with expensive loans, will continue to encourage the liquidation of legal entities, especially in capital-intensive industries. The result will be further shadowing of economic activity.

Pessimism of businesses is reinforced by inflation expectations. According to a survey of enterprises conducted by the central bank of the rf, when forming business plans for 2026, entrepreneurs on average assume an annual inflation rate of 9.3%. This significantly exceeds both the official rosstat figure for last year (5.6%) and the central bank’s forecast for the current year (4–5%). At this, the inflation actually observed by ordinary russians is 14.5%, which ultimately undermines confidence in official statistics.

2025 was the worst year for russian trade in the last 10 years: in all four quarters, the business confidence index remained in negative territory. Against this background, more than half a million russian citizens were declared bankrupt, which fact underscores the depth of financial exhaustion of both businesses and households.