Business failures in Britain fell by 6.4 per cent in the first nine months of this year.
Figures from business information company Dun & Bradstreet show the total number of business failures was 30,925 to the end of September.
This compares with 33,028 in the same period last year.
In the most recent quarter, from July to September, the number of failures was 10,661, sharply down on the 11,741 in the corresponding quarter of 1999.
Business failures in the capital fell by 17 per cent over the first nine months of 2000.
Other regions to show steep drops in the number of business failures were the South-West and the East.
Scotland, which has different rules on business failures, also saw a drop of more than 10 per cent.
However, the North-East bucked the general downward trend, with an 11.2 per cent rise in the level of failures, while in Wales they remained almost the same.
Philip Mellor, senior analyst at Dun & Bradstreet, said: "It is good to see the pace of business failure slowing down even in those parts of the country with a higher preponderance of manufacturing businesses."
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