Romania's Business Register Q4 2025 – Q1 2026: Strong New Entries, But Exits Outpace Arrivals
A Quarter of Two Speeds: Registrations Climb Year-on-Year While Lifecycle Pressures Build
The three-month window spanning November 2025 through January 2026 delivered a mixed but ultimately revealing picture of Romania’s business formation landscape. Compared to the same quarter a year earlier, new company registrations rose substantially across all three months — a consistent year-on-year improvement. Yet the same period also saw exits (suspensions, dissolutions, and deregistrations) accelerate sharply in the final weeks of the year and into January, creating a net negative balance for the business register in both December and January. The quarter’s story, in short, is one of genuine entrepreneurial vitality set against a rising tide of business closures.
Quarter at a Glance
| Month | Registrations | YoY Change | Total Exits | Net Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2025 | 15,051 | +23.1% | 12,535 | +2,516 |
| December 2025 | 11,632 | +45.9% | 15,924 | −4,292 |
| January 2026 | 11,075 | +27.7% | 13,761 | −2,686 |
November 2025: A High-Water Mark
November opened the quarter as its strongest month. Romania recorded 15,051 registrations , a 23.1% increase over November 2024’s 12,225 . This was the only month in the three-month window where new registrations outpaced total exits, producing a net positive of 2,516 entities . The health ratio — registrations divided by exits — stood at a healthy 1.20 , a comfortable margin above parity.
PFA registrations (individual authorised persons) were the standout driver in November, jumping 67.9% year-on-year to 5,068 , while SRL (limited liability companies) grew a more moderate 8.4% to 9,582 . Transport and storage topped industry rankings with 3,053 registrations, followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade at 1,957, and Manufacturing — notably — coming in third at 1,604. The rise of manufacturing in November was unusual for the sector and merits attention.
December 2025: Year-End Surge in Registrations — and Exits
December is historically a month shaped by competing forces: entrepreneurs rushing to register before year-end tax deadlines, and administrative processes clearing out dormant entities through dissolutions and deregistrations. December 2025 followed that pattern emphatically.
Registrations reached 11,632 , a striking 45.9% above December 2024’s 7,974 . PFA growth was again the dominant force, nearly doubling year-on-year with a 108.9% increase to 3,650 , while SRL registrations climbed 27.4% to 7,629 .
However, exits surged far more dramatically. December 2025 recorded 15,924 total business exits , resulting in a net balance of −4,292 entities — the worst of the three months. Deregistrations alone reached 8,426 , and dissolutions hit 5,573 . This pattern is consistent with historical year-end administrative clean-ups of dormant or non-compliant entities, and the scale of December exits was comparable to December 2024 (15,732 exits), suggesting this is a structural seasonal feature rather than a sign of deteriorating conditions.
January 2026: A Reset, With Encouraging YoY Numbers
January is traditionally a slower month for new registrations — entrepreneurs are settling into the new year, and administrative activity from December continues to ripple through the system. January 2026 recorded 11,075 new registrations , a 27.7% gain over January 2025’s 8,675 .
The PFA category was again the principal year-on-year growth driver, rising an extraordinary 92.1% to 4,455 from just 2,319 a year earlier. SRL registrations rose a more restrained 4.5% to 6,264 . The individual enterprise (II) category was the only common type to decline, slipping 6.1% .
The ecosystem health ratio for January 2026 improved to 0.80 from December’s 0.73 , a modest but positive trend. Total exits in January 2026 reached 13,761, with dissolutions rising sharply: 5,403 — up 51.6% from January 2025’s 3,564 . Suspensions also rose 19.9% year-on-year , while deregistrations held nearly flat at −0.24% . The increase in dissolutions — a voluntary or court-ordered liquidation process — rather than deregistrations (which can be more administrative) suggests more deliberate business wind-downs are occurring, a pattern worth watching in the coming months.
The PFA Wave: Structural Shift or Regulatory Response?
The single most defining feature of this quarter is the explosive growth in PFA (Persoană Fizică Autorizată) registrations across all three months. In November, December, and January alike, PFA growth rates ranged from 68% to 109% year-on-year, consistently outpacing SRL growth by a wide margin.
This shift likely reflects several interacting forces: the continued normalisation of freelance and gig-economy work, changes to how certain professions are formalised, and possibly regulatory or tax incentive changes affecting the relative attractiveness of PFA versus SRL formation. The data alone cannot determine the cause, but the persistence of this trend across three consecutive months suggests it is structural rather than a one-off spike.
Industry Trends: Transport Leads, Tech Accelerates
Across the quarter, Transport and Storage was the dominant sector for new registrations. In January 2026, it accounted for 2,045 registrations , a 45.3% increase versus January 2025 . The sector topped the rankings in all three months, reflecting Romania’s continued role as a logistics hub within Central and Eastern Europe.
The most striking sector-level acceleration in January 2026 was in Information and Communications, which posted a 65.9% year-on-year gain to 1,140 registrations . This sector has been consistently expanding and its January performance reinforces the narrative of growing digital entrepreneurship. Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities also grew 37.0% year-on-year , while Manufacturing nearly doubled (+94.8%) compared to January 2025, reaching 672 registrations .
Construction was the one major sector that remained nearly flat, adding just 0.33% year-on-year in January 2026 — a notable contrast to the vitality seen in other sectors, potentially reflecting headwinds from tighter credit conditions and the completion of major infrastructure cycles.
Geography: Bucharest and Its Orbit Dominate, But Regional Cities Compete
In January 2026, Bucharest remained the undisputed registration hub with 2,706 new entities , representing a 54.8% year-on-year increase . Ilfov — Bucharest’s suburban county — followed at 696, up 53.0% , reinforcing the continued concentration of business formation in the capital region.
Among regional cities, Cluj (557 registrations, +35.2%), Timișoara (522, +32.2%), and Iași (482, +14.8%) maintained their positions as the country’s secondary business formation centres . The most dramatic growth outside the capital came from Galați, which recorded a 119.3% year-on-year increase to 261 registrations , and Constanța, which climbed 59.6% to 348 . These Black Sea and Danube corridor counties may be benefiting from investments in port logistics and maritime trade infrastructure.
The 12-Month Moving Average: Underlying Trend Is Positive But Moderate
The 12-month moving average for registrations — which smooths out seasonal noise — stood at 12,990 in January 2026 , up from 12,790 in December 2025 and 12,486 in November 2025 . The trend is consistently upward but not dramatically so — the moving average has risen by roughly 740 points over the three-month window, suggesting genuine underlying growth that is meaningful but measured.
January 2026’s actual registrations (11,075) fell below this moving average (12,990), which is expected given January’s historical seasonality. The same was true in December 2025, when registrations of 11,632 also undercut the 12,790 moving average. November 2025, at 15,051, was the only month of the quarter to exceed its rolling average, confirming it as an exceptional month.
Ecosystem Balance: Growth in Entries, Pressure From Exits
Comparing this quarter to the same three months a year prior reveals a notably healthier registration picture — but also a more active exit environment. The prior-year quarter (November 2024 through January 2025) recorded total exits of 40,593 across three months, with a combined churn rate driven by the particularly severe December 2024 (churn rate: 197.29). The current quarter’s December 2025 churn rate of 136.9 and January 2026’s 124.25 represent genuine improvements from those prior-year peaks — even if they remain above parity.
The sharp rise in January 2026 dissolutions (+51.6% YoY) is the most notable concern in the lifecycle data. While deregistrations (often administrative removals) remained flat, voluntary and court-ordered dissolutions reaching 5,403 in a single month indicate that a meaningful cohort of businesses entered formal wind-down procedures at the start of 2026. This may partly reflect entities formed during the 2020–2021 pandemic period — when registration incentives were broadly available — that have now exhausted their operational runway.
Summary Assessment
The November 2025 – January 2026 quarter presents Romania’s business formation environment as one of genuine but uneven growth. Registration volumes are consistently and substantially above year-ago levels across all three months — a pattern that is hard to dismiss as noise. The PFA surge in particular represents a structural evolution in how Romanians are formalising economic activity, with individual entrepreneurship formats gaining decisively on the traditional limited-liability company.
At the same time, exits remain elevated, and the monthly net balance of the business register turned negative in both December and January — largely in line with seasonal norms, but compounded by a real increase in formal dissolutions at the start of 2026. The 12-month moving average continues to trend upward, indicating that the underlying trajectory of new business formation is positive.
The geographic concentration of growth in Bucharest and its satellite counties, alongside the dynamism in IT, transport, and professional services, paints a picture of a services-led, digitally oriented expansion — one that does not yet extend uniformly to all regions or all sectors.