THE ECONOMY

Companies Paying Bills a Bit Faster: American companies began paying their bills a little faster in the third quarter, a sign that they are having a slightly easier time making ends meet, according to a survey. Dun & Bradstreet Information Services said payment performance was up in the third quarter after having stagnated the previous two quarters. However, companies were still paying their bills slowly, the financial information service said. D&B;’s payment performance index improved to minus 6.0 in the third quarter from minus 6.8 the first two quarters of the year.