By Shane Wright

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Business in suburbs across Sydney’s south-west, including Canterbury and Merrylands, were the most likely to be at risk of insolvency. There were also elevated insolvency risks in Queensland’s Surfers Paradise and the Tullamarine-Broadmeadows area of northern Melbourne.

CreditorWatch said all of these areas were more likely to have people on lower-than-average household incomes, a high concentration of small businesses, including many in construction, plus elevated levels of personal insolvency rates.

The lowest chances of failure are among businesses located in inner-city Adelaide, regional Victoria and north Queensland.

The rise of insolvency has occurred despite cuts to official interest rates, a lift in consumer spending plus a sharp fall in inflation.