Company failures no more frequent

The media noise and to some extent bank data on delinquencies and impairments may tell a different story, but one source of official data on business failure continues to suggest that things are no worse in mid 2009 than at the beginning of the year, and that 2009 is not much more severe than 2008 or even 2007.

ASIC data shows that the number of companies entering external administration this year is more or less consistent at eight hundred and something each month. The incidence of external administration has hovered around this level since July 2008.

In 2007, between 600 and 800 companies entered external administration each month.

Insolvency appointments each month are a little more volatile but also hover around 1300, the ASIC data shows. This is also little changed since July 2008.