Are we in recession?

The Insolvency Service statistics for the second quarter of 2008 came out on 1st August 2008.

These showed a marked increase in the number of corporate insolvencies in England and Wales. There were 3560 compulsory and voluntary liquidations in the quarter, an increase of 11.6% on the previous quarter and of 15% on the same period a year ago.

Other corporate insolvencies, administrations, receiverships and company voluntary arrangements, were also up by 7.6% on the last quarter and by 63.1% on the same period 12 months ago.

Interestingly, though, personal insolvencies are down, by 2% on the last quarter and 8.3% when compared with twelve months ago. There were 24553 individual insolvencies.

There is a trend towards debtors petitioning for their own bankruptcies rather than waiting for a creditor to do it for them. 84% of petitions were debtors' petitions.

These figures would seem to be influenced by the move away from Individual Voluntary Arrangements and towards non-statutory debt solutions for individuals rather than by any improvement in the economy.