According to a report published today by the business advice group BDO Stoy Hayward, the number of bankruptcies is set to fall to a six-year low by the end of 2005, even though they rose in the first quarter of this year because of the knock-on effect of sluggish growth last year.
The study predicts that strong economic expansion will reduce the number of business failures to an estimated 16,390 next year - or about 1 per cent of companies - down from a forecast bankruptcy rate of just 17,000 this year.
Although BDO Stoy Hayward says it cannot yet break down last year's total of 17,540 business failures precisely according to sector, it believes that bankruptcies in manufacturing, technology, media and telecommunications fell in 2003, but those in the service and leisure sector rose sharply.
