The number of businesses entering administration in the third quarter of the year declined in every part of the country in every business sector compared to the second quarter, according to figures released by Equifax.

Equifax's Business Failures Report revealed that every business sector has shown a downturn in businesses going bust in the third quarter compared to the previous three months. The best performing sector was the Wholesale sector, with the number of firms failing declining by 19.4%.

The Construction, Manufacturing, Services, Retail and Transport & Communications sectors all recorded double figure declines in company failures.

"This is the first Quarter for over a year when we have seen every region of the country and every business sector report a drop in failures. This must give businesses in general and the UK economy as a whole some confidence that the extreme difficulties we have been experiencing may be lessening," said Neil Munroe, external affairs director at Equifax.