In 2009, there had been 60,530 business bankruptcy filings—a 41 percent year-over-year increase from 2008, and more than three times the number of cases filed in 2006 in the US. The number of business bankruptcies commenced worldwide since then has steadily fallen from its peak in 2009 and, while the continued struggles in Europe and Asia have caused many companies to seek insolvency relief, this downward trend in new failures has continued in most jurisdictions. For example, the challenges continue in the euro zone; 12,306 companies went bankrupt in 2013 and that such number is projected to increase in 2014 in Belgium, citing statistics published by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.