The number people declared bankruptcy in Spain rose by 39.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 in comparison with the same period of 2011, official data showed on Wednesday.

According to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE), the number of bankruptcies rose to 2,584 in the fourth quarter (8,726 in the whole year of 2012), which meant a 57 percent increase in comparison with the third quarter and the highest variation in five years.

According to INE's data, 2,444 of the bankruptcies were voluntary, up 39.7 percent in comparison with the same period of the previous year, and 140 were forced, a 34.6 percent rise over 2011's figures.

Only 235 of the bankruptcies declared during the period were of individuals with the great majority of bankruptcies found in businesses, the number of which climbed to 2,349, a 42.4 percent increase over the last quarter of 2011 and a 60 percent increase when compared to the third quarter of 2012.

Meanwhile, the INE highlighted 28.8 percent of these enterprises belonged to the building sector, which was seriously hit by the crisis after the property bubble popped, while 19.4 percent were business enterprises and 18.7 percent were related to industry and energy sectors.

Small and medium-sized companies have been most affected by the crisis: 70.2 percent of bankrupt enterprises had less than 2 million euros (2.706 million U.S. dollars) of turnover.

2012 saw the Spanish government passed some measures to support small and medium-sized companies such as the liberalization of opening hours, while Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced two days ago in Berlin they were preparing more measures to support these enterprises.