The economy of Belgium is showing increasing signs of strain, with indicators pointing to a deepening downturn that has accelerated in the wake of ongoing global tensions, including conflicts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
According to the latest report by the Federal Public Service Economy, the country\u2019s exports have declined by 4 percent, pushing Belgium down to 19th place in global export rankings and reducing its share of the global market to 1.8 percent.<\/p>\n
The weakening external trade performance reflects broader structural pressures on the Belgian economy, which has been struggling to regain momentum since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine War. Analysts note that rising costs, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical instability have continued to weigh heavily on economic activity.<\/p>\n
Fresh data released by Statbel further underscores the severity of the situation. In March alone, 1,206 companies declared bankruptcy, marking a sharp 25.4 percent increase compared to the previous month. This represents the highest level recorded for the same period since 2015.<\/p>\n
The wave of bankruptcies has been particularly pronounced in key sectors such as construction, retail, information and communication technologies, professional services, and other service industries.<\/p>\n
The construction sector has been hit hardest, recording 273 bankruptcies in March \u2014 the highest figure ever registered in the sector. As a direct consequence of the closures, a total of 2,948 people lost their jobs during the same period, marking the first time unemployment linked to bankruptcies has reached such levels since 2019.<\/p>\n
Economists warn that the convergence of external shocks and internal vulnerabilities is creating sustained pressure on Belgium\u2019s economic outlook. While the Russia-Ukraine war initially triggered the slowdown, recent geopolitical developments \u2014 including heightened instability in the Middle East \u2014 are seen as compounding existing fragilities.<\/p>\n
The data points to a challenging period ahead for Belgium, as policymakers face growing pressure to stabilize the economy, support struggling sectors, and mitigate the social impact of rising business failures. (ILKHA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The economy of Belgium is showing increasing signs of strain, with indicators pointing to a deepening downturn that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,447,487],"class_list":{"0":"post-12406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-middle-east"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116441792287470749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}