Company failures reached a 16-year high in the first three months of 2009, official figures showed yesterday.
There were 5,011 company liquidations in England and Wales between January and March – the highest since the second quarter of 1993 on a non-seasonally adjusted basis.
The gloomy figures were 57% higher than a year ago and a 13% jump on the last three months of 2008.
It is the fifth successive quarter of rising corporate insolvency.
Further, a record 19,062 people were declared bankrupt on a seasonally adjusted basis during the first three months of the year, 23.4% more than in the same period of 2008, the Insolvency Service said.
The number of people who went insolvent, which includes both bankruptcies and those taking out an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA), rose to a new high of 29,774.
Read More: Worst company failure rate for 16 years, 57% higher...
