The rate of business closures in Australia has reached a four-year high, with higher cost of living pressures facing households contributing to more companies shutting up shop.
Data released by debt-monitoring firm CreditorWatch showed the failure rate of businesses rose to 5.04 per cent in October — the highest since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2020, when the failure rate reached 5.08 per cent.
On an annual basis, insolvency rates were roughly 25 per cent higher than they were prior to the pandemic.
The agency identified three main reasons for insolvency that failed businesses had in common: the higher cost of living, the higher cost of doing business, and the Australian Taxation Office’s efforts to recover $35 billion…