S Korea's corporate default fell to all-time low in Feb

South Korea's corporate bankruptcies fell to an all-time low last month due mainly to a reduction in defaults of regional builders, the central bank said Monday. The number of companies that went belly-up stood at 94 in February, down 9 from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The February figure was the lowest since the bank began compiling the data in January 1990. "The corporate default figure stayed at a long-term trend level that moved up and down around 100. The lowest level came after the number for regional builders fell sharply last month," an official at the BOK told Xinhua. The number of failures for builders shrank 16 in February from the previous month, while the figure for service companies grew 3 over the same period. The number for manufacturers' bankruptcies stayed unchanged. Meanwhile, the number of newly established firms came in at 6, 439 in February, up 434 from a month before, according to the BOK. The ratio of startups against the bankrupt companies rose to 102.2 in February from 81.1 the previous month. The default rate on corporate bills, including bonds, checks and promissory notes, stood at 0.01 percent last month, down 0.01 percentage point from a month earlier.