Despite the worst recession in France and Europe in almost a century, corporate bankruptcies have never been so low in 30 years.

The business support plans have been remarkably effective thanks to their rapid implementation.

Nicolas Barré takes stock of a current economic issue.

The economic crisis we are going through is decidedly out of the ordinary; business bankruptcies have never been so few for 30 years.

It is a situation which may surprise.

France and Europe have experienced their worst recession in almost a century, with an economy that plunged 10% last year.

However, the number of business failures has been remarkably low with only 32,000 bankruptcies, whereas for a dozen years the average has been between 50 and 60,000 bankruptcies per year.

This is obviously the direct effect of the plans to support the economy.

These very expensive plans were indeed remarkably effective because they were put in place very quickly.

In other countries like the United States for example, we made another choice and there was a larger wave of bankruptcies.

In France, we made the choice of "whatever the cost" with massive partial unemployment, which amounts to nationalizing wages, a solidarity fund which has absorbed part of the losses in turnover, moratoriums .

Instructions given to Urssaf not to bring companies that no longer pay in court.

These procedures alone are responsible in normal times for a quarter of bankruptcies in France, yet they have been completely suspended etc.

Thanks to all these measures, France, as we can see in these figures, has avoided a tsunami of bankruptcies.

But for how long ?

The big question for the coming year, and this is quite unprecedented, will be to sort out, a bit like caregivers in overwhelmed hospitals sometimes have to do, between the companies that deserve to be saved and those whose artificial survival cannot be prolonged.

There are today in France a large number of so-called "zombie" companies, which should have gone bankrupt last year.

They are even closer to the precipice today.

The challenge for 2021 will be to prevent their failure from causing others in the wake, so that the freeze observed last year with public aid does not translate into a sudden thaw this year.

Hope is the rebound in activity.

A rebound directly linked to the rate of increase in vaccination, which has become the barometer of our economy.