Poland

Polish corporate bankruptcies rose by 25 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009 to 126, a sharp reversal in a positive downward trend observed from 2002, Coface Poland said in a report on Monday. In 2008 the number of bankruptcies declined by 7 percent year-on-year, said the report, quoted by Polish news agency PAP. "In 2009 bankruptcy statistics, firms are appearing whose bankruptcy was directly influenced by crisis-related factors," the report said, identifying a dramatic decline in the number of orders as a primary bankruptcy factor.

The president of Poland challenged the view that Eastern Europe as a whole is heading into a deep recession that is dragging down Western Europe and posing grave risks to the global economy, warning in an interview against lumping all countries in the region "into one basket," the International Herald Tribune reported. "We were hit as everyone else by the crisis, though we have not suffered to the degree that some other countries have," President Lech Kaczynski said Tuesday.

General Motors' German unit Opel could slash 3,500 jobs as part of a plan to cut costs and relaunch as an independent company, GM Europe head Carl-Peter Forster told Bild newspaper. Staff reductions would hopefully not exceed that figure at Opel, which employs around 25,000 workers in Germany, he told the daily on Wednesday. To survive, Opel needs around €3.3 billion ($4.17 billion) in state aid from European governments to save jobs and keep plants open, the company has said.

Automotive supplier Tedrive has filed for insolvency for two German units, citing a recent slump in orders, according to the company's insolvency administrator, The Guardian reported. Tedrive was the second industry player to file for insolvency in the region within a week, after German brake pad maker TMD Friction did the same for four German plants. The administrator said Tedrive aimed to restructure its business at the two units. The units make driveshafts and steering systems, and have a total of 1,500 workers.