European statistics agency Eurostat reported Friday that as the European union teeters on the edge of a recession, EU business insolvencies surged in the final three months of 2022, to the highest level seen since the records began being kept in 2015.

Compared to the previous quarter, debt defaults soared 26.8% over the previous quarter, as the level of registrations of businesses fell by 0.2% compared to the same period last year.

The statistics agency noted the trend continued throughout the year, noting that, “the number of bankruptcy declarations increased during all four quarters of 2022.”

Eurostat also pointed out that all areas of the European economy were affected, saying, “Looking specifically at bankruptcies by activity, all sectors registered increases in the number of bankruptcies in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared with the previous quarter.”

The surge in insolvencies across the EU were largely attributable to the severe energy crunch after the reduction of energy supplies flowing into the bloc from Russia due to the military actions in Ukraine, as well as the growing cost of living crisis from an increasingly persistent inflation affecting economies throughout the bloc.

Transportation and storage were the sectors with the highest level of defaults, marking a 72.2% increase. Accommodations and food services had a 39.4% rise. Education, health, and social activities had a 29.5% increase.

The number of bankruptcy declarations in the last three months of 2022 was higher than in the pre-pandemic fourth quarter of 2019, in the majority of sectors of the economy according to the statistics agency.

Accommodations and food services were the hardest hit in the last quarter of 2022, measuring a 97.7% increase in bankruptcies among EU businesses, compared to the last quarter of the pre-pandemic period of 2019.