Recession stabilising
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THE RECESSION affecting the haulage industry is stabilising and may possibly improve, the trade credit insurer Trade Indemnity has -said.
Trade Indemnity economist Isobel Pissarides told. CM that it appeared that aid number of insolvancieS in haulage, had stabilised over 1984 and the first five months of 1985.
She said that Trade Indemnity's clients had notified it of 18 haulage failures in the UK so far this year, and that for the first five months of 1984 there had been 19 notifications.
Mrs Pissarides said that 1983 was the worst year for failures with 70 notifications — a rise from 34 in 1982, 14 in 1981 and six in both 1980 and 1979.
After the 1983 peak, there was a drop to 55 in 1984. Now it seems that haulage is "maintaining the improvement of last year", she said. There may even be a further improvement for the rest of. 1985, although haulage is still
prone to very high insolvency rates, she added.
Department of Trade and Industry figures back up Trade Indemnity's results, Mrs Pissarides said. They also showed that the number of failures in haulage peaked in 1983 at 1,408 and fallen in 1984 to roughly 990.
. All industries — apart front construction which is still suffering increased failures — have turned the corner from the depths of the recession, Mrs Pissarides stated. And haulage "plots the recent re
Graph of insolvencies
cession very clearly'', she said.
• Smaller companies have adapted better to the recession than larger firms, according to a Confederation of British industry report.
The CBI has presented the report to the Government's Enterprise Unit head Lord Young. The report says that smaller firms have been investing more cautiously, but that they have been increasing their employment since the second half of 1983.