Romania’s corporate register shrank again in July, extending a losing streak that has now erased a cumulative 16,115 net companies since it began.

The month closed with 11,049 new registrations against 12,079 firms that left the register through suspensions, dissolutions and deregistrations. The result was a net loss of 1,030 businesses — the eighth consecutive month in the red, a run that began in December 2025.

That continuity is the story. But the more dangerous part is what the quieter numbers are being used to hide.

The “Improvement” That Isn’t One

On the surface, July looks like relief. The month’s deficit of 1,030 was the second-shallowest of the entire streak, beaten only by February’s near-breakeven of -119. After April’s -3,018 and May’s -2,051, the direction of the monthly loss has been narrowing.

That is not a recovery. It is a contraction happening on both sides of the ledger at once.

New registrations collapsed 27.16% year over year, from 15,168 to 11,049. But the exit side also fell: dissolutions dropped 18.01% and deregistrations 9.6%. Fewer companies are being created — and fewer are even being formally closed. The gap between the two is narrowing not because business is returning, but because the ecosystem is running out of activity on both ends.

A year ago the picture was inverted: July 2025 produced 15,168 registrations against 14,109 exits, a net gain of roughly 1,000 firms. This July erased that gain and went a further 1,030 into negative territory.

The SRL Collapse Keeps Driving the Decline

The structural shift away from incorporated businesses is no longer a footnote — it is the engine of the contraction. SRL formations nearly halved, falling 44.95% year over year to 5,963. Meanwhile PFA sole-trader registrations rose 19.97% to 4,662.

The register is being refilled with low-capital, low-commitment structures while the incorporated backbone shrinks. What looks like resilience in the PFA column is really the absence of the kind of company formation that carries payrolls, credit and long-term investment.

The Industries That Are Collapsing

The damage in July was strikingly broad. Hotels and restaurants fell 58.15% year over year, health and social care 57.31%, manufacturing 55.98%, and culture, sport and recreation 50.73%. Administrative and support services dropped 45.2%, construction 34%, and retail and wholesale trade 29.99%.

The only meaningful gains came in financial intermediation (+28.57%), agriculture (+16.11%) and transport and storage (+4.39%). These are exactly the sectors you would expect to hold up in a survival economy — logistics, subsidies and finance — while consumer-facing and high-value activities disintegrate.

Even the “Winners” Are Losing

Perhaps the most telling regional detail: no county in the top-growth ranking actually grew. The best performer in the country, Satu Mare, still shrank 2.74% year over year. Every “top growing” county on the list posted a decline.

Bucharest technically held net positive — 2,786 registrations against 2,377 exits. But the secondary engines that were supposed to carry the country’s growth are bleeding. Cluj posted a churn rate of 135.18%, Constanța 123.56%, Bihor 130.79%, Prahova 130.17%, and Argeș 155.42% — all meaning exits exceeded new registrations.

July Wasn’t Supposed to Be Weak

The summer-lull defense doesn’t survive contact with the seasonal data. July ranks seventh of twelve months by average registrations, with a long-run mean of 11,926. This July’s 11,049 came in below that average — and well below the 12-month moving average of 12,904, which itself fell by 343 month over month.

This is not a normal seasonal dip. It is a below-average month inside a negative run.

The Bottom Line

Eight months in, the negative-net condition has not broken — it has simply gotten quieter. The cumulative damage of 16,115 lost businesses is now fixed in the register, and the slowing rate of monthly loss is a function of a shrinking denominator, not a healing economy.

If this is stabilization, it is the stabilization of a contracting base. The continuity finding is the warning: the streak survived July, and nothing in the data suggests August will be any different.