The latest monthly report from credit bureau Centrix shows liquidations are up 19 percent year-on-year, and business credit defaults up 5 percent.
Construction, hospitality and transport businesses appear to be the hardest hit, as consumers and businesses pull back on spending.
That is despite an improvement in business and consumer sentiment in recent months.
Centrix managing director Keith McLaughlin said the trend of difficulty for businesses often followed that of consumers.
“The cost of running a business has gone up and to counter that, consumers haven’t been spending as freely as they may do in a good economic environment and therefore, their revenue has fallen,” he said.
The construction, hospitality and transport sectors were doing it particularly tough, with businesses in those sectors twice as likely to be placed in liquidation, according to Centrix.
461,000 now behind on payments
In a sign that households were continuing to do it tough, Centrix said the number of consumers behind on their repayments rose by 5000 month-on-month to 461,000.
That equated to more than 12 percent of active borrowers, and was 6 percent higher than the same period a year ago, and tracking at just above 2018 levels.
Centrix said arrears were expected to rise during late spring and early summer, which was typical for the period due to Christmas shopping.
Financial hardship cases also continued to rise, up 24 percent from a year ago, and have been rising since November 2022.
In more positive news for households, home loan arrears moderated slightly month-on-month, although they were 12 percent higher than a year ago.
However, the overall number of home loan arrears remained low, with 20,700 home loans reported as past due, which made up 1.39 percent of borrowers.
