Birth and death rates are as a rule stronger for sole proprietors. By October, 12,071 new sole proprietors were registered, which is 23% more than in the same period the year before. At the same time the number of those who closed down fell by 10% to close to 9,000.

The reasons for new enterprises and sole proprietors to start business are different and many of them do not operate even for a year, according to SKEP, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (GZS) unit for economic outlook, analysis and forecasts.

In the case of companies, the number of births as well as the number of deaths decreased last year. By the end of October, 523 companies had been set up, down 1.1% from the same period in 2012, whereas the number of those that closed dropped by 3.2% to 2,646, which SKEP hailed as a good trend.