While consumption and economy are declining in the wake of the epidemic, zombie enterprises continue to increase in Europe in an environment of low interest rates. Research by CreditReform, a credit agency, shows that about 1/6, or 550,000 companies in Germany are considered zombie companies. A report by Bank of America points out that Britain accounts for a third of all zombie companies in Europe, making it "zombie capital" of Europe. According to statistics, 20% of companies in UK are currently zombie enterprises, and the ratio has increased by about 4% since March. Accommodation and catering services, as well as arts, entertainment and leisure, the two sectors hardest hit by the epidemic, saw their share of zombie enterprises soar by 9% and 11% respectively to 23% and 26%. The surge in zombie companies is mainly due to the fact that many companies are issuing new debt to survive as their revenues shrink in the face of the epidemic. According to data from the Bank for International Settlements, non-investment-grade companies have issued US$322 billion worth of bonds in the first eight months of this year, which is the same as the issuance volume in 2019. Many companies that are already "zombies" are still being bailed out by the government without going bankrupt or restructuring their debt. A BBC study shows that a large number of companies in UK went bust before the outbreak of the pandemic, but the rate of corporate bankruptcy has slowed dramatically since then under the government’s ￡160 billion support package. However, many companies are already in trouble because of their high levels of debt. According to Onward, a think-tank, zombie companies will have a knock-on effect on the economy. If the British government does not take countermeasures, the worst-case scenario would be that the local annual business investment may be ￡42 billion , and more than 400,000 jobs will be lost in the next five years, and ￡41 billion may be evaporated. The president of Deutsche Bank warned that If Europe continues to expand state aid to protect its economy from the pandemic, it will create thousands of "zombie companies" that will lose competitiveness against the United States and other countries.