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Glimmer of hope amid the gloom

After one of the darkest days for the North East economy in recent years, a new report has brought with it a glimmer of hope that there may be brighter times ahead.

If insolvency figures released by Experian are to be believed, the region could be well on the way to recovery.

However, as 1,600 Corus workers face up to the reality of redundancy and hundreds of firms in the supply chain mourn the death of the Teesside steel industry, the numbers may not mean much to those in the South of the region.

According to the latest Insolvency Index from Experian, the North East saw its insolvency rate decrease by over 30% in January from 0.19% to 0.12% in January.

Experian claims the report reveals a positive picture for the start of 2010 as the rate of business failures falls to its lowest point since June 2007.

Businesses across the UK saw an 8%improvement in their combined financial strength score, from 79.46 in January 2009 to 81.16 January 2010.

Nationally, the rate of insolvencies fell to 0.07 per cent in January 2010, with seven in every 10,000 businesses going under.

Rolf Hickmann, managing director of pH, an Experian company, said: “It’s encouraging to discover that not since the current financial crunch started have so few firms become insolvent in a single month.

“Whilst it is too early to predict whether we are fully out of the woods, this does hint at an improvement in the health of UK businesses, something which is reinforced by the financial strength view provided by January’s data.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .