The number of U.S. business failures fell...

The number of U.S. business failures fell by 6.3% to 44,793 during the first three quarters of this year, the best performance in nearly a decade, according to a private survey released by Dun & Bradstreet Corp. During the first nine months of 1987, there were 47,794. Joseph Duncan, Dun & Bradstreet’s corporate economist, said the decline was “larely attributable to decreases in the levels of failures in the oil and agricultural states.” Agricultural business failures fell 54.9%. Duncan said the number of agricultural failures soared in 1987 when farmers took advantage of new protections under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.