The number of businesses going bust has dropped for the first time in more than a year, according to business information provider Equifax.

The number of businesses going bust has dropped for the first time in more than a year, according to business information provider Equifax.

There were 7,674 business failures in the third quarter of the year, compared to 8,874 in the second quarter, a fall of 13.5 per cent. However, the number of failed companies is still 12.9 per cent higher than it was in the same period of 2008.

Neil Munroe, external affairs director at Equifax, says that this is the first quarter for more than a year in which every region of the UK and every business sector has reported a drop in failures.

But he adds, ‘We need to see consistent improvements over a number of quarters before we can be fully confident that we are out of the recession. It is crucial that these early signs of recovery are not over-stated.’

The biggest quarter-on-quarter improvement was in the North East of England, which saw a 25.5 per cent fall in business failures, followed closely by Wales at 25.4 per cent.

In sector terms, wholesalers saw the biggest change for the better, though all sectors experienced decreases of at least 10 per cent in failures.