International Business

British Business Failures at Five-Year Low: The number of British companies going into bankruptcy fell to 2,040 last year, a 28% decrease from 1993 and the lowest since 1989, when 1,187 companies collapsed, according to a report by accountants KPMG Peat Marwick. KPMG said the further slowdown in failures indicates that worries that the British economic recovery may be faltering are exaggerated. Manufacturing again bore the brunt of company failures last year; about 31% of the firms going under were in that sector. Britain is estimated to have lost about a third of its manufacturing capacity over the last 15 years.