UK personal insolvencies rise 8.2 pct

Bloomberg

Individual insolvencies in England and Wales rose 8.2 percent from the third quarter to 29,444, the U.K. government’s Insolvency Service said Friday in an e-mailed statement. From a year earlier, they increased 18.5 percent. Company liquidations increased 11.9 percent on the quarter and 51.6 percent from a year earlier.

Declining confidence
Unemployment rose, the housing market slumped and banks rationed loans as Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower last week said the nation may endure a worse recession than in the 1980s.

Companies are laying off staff as profits slump, while consumers’ confidence in the economy has dropped. High street retailers Zavvi Group and Woolworths Group both collapsed earlier this year.The Bank of England on Thursday cut its benchmark interest rate to a three-century low of 1 percent, as policy makers struggle to kick-start growth and spur credit flows. December mortgage approvals stayed near to the lowest level since at least 1999.