The number of UK businesses entering into administration has risen in the last six months, according to analysis from KPMG, Economia reported. The Big Four firm found that 1,174 companies entered into administration last year, compared with 1,111 in 2015, which was then a 15-year low. According to data collected from notices in the London Gazette, while the first six months of the year continued to see a decline in insolvencies, the second half of the year saw numbers rise.

The quarterly economic survey from the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry and business advisers BDO shows that local firms ended 2016 more upbeat than compared to their immediate predominately gloomy reaction following the EU referendum vote in June, the Irish Times reported. However, when it comes to prospects for 2017, Northern Ireland businesses are decidedly pessimistic about what might lie ahead for the local economy – and that was before the growing political crisis this week.

Among UK retailers, Next has tended to give some of the most cautious guidance. This year, that looks the right approach. The clothing chain predicts a particularly doom-laden year for the British high street and warned pre-tax profit may fall by as much as 14 percent. That's down to Next's own issues, but also spiraling costs for retailers. Britons' more ready embrace of online than consumers in some other markets adds to the crunch. Unlike various rivals, Next plans to pass Brexit-related manufacturing cost increases on to its customers.

The chances that the U.K. will quit the single market and revert to a tariffs regime have grown more likely with the resignation of the British envoy to the European Union, an experienced Brussels insider who was reviled by the leading Brexit supporters, Bloomberg News reported. Backers of a clean break from the EU cheered the departure of Ivan Rogers as a sign the U.K. government is committed to regaining complete control of immigration, laws and budget even if that means fraying trade ties.

The liquidators of BHS are conducting a detailed investigation into property transactions that took place during the regimes of Sir Philip Green and Dominic Chappell, including whether the directors of the retailer breached their duties, The Guardian reported. Insolvency practitioners have a legal duty to review the conduct of the directors of a collapsed company, but the scope and depth of the BHS investigation is rare. FRP Advisory is undertaking a “massive exercise in data collation”, according to one source close to the winding up of BHS.

We already knew 2016 had been a difficult year for North Sea oil, and the revelation that 16 firms in the sector became insolvent last year only confirms it, The Herald reported. What is alarming is the pace of these insolvencies – there were just two the year before – and the likelihood that many more firms may be teetering on the brink. A 25 per cent increase in oil prices in the last quarter of 2016 may herald better times ahead, and if the price stabilises at above US$50 a barrel, that would be a significant improvement since world oil prices collapsed dramatically in 2014.

Households are being left with less cash to spend on treats or to stash away as savings as the rising cost of essentials like food and fuel take a bigger chunk out of family budgets, The Guardian reported. A new report on household finances from Lloyds bank echoed other signs that the pound’s steep fall since the Brexit vote is raising import costs for the UK and trickling through to higher prices for consumers.

The number of people in work in the U.K. fell for the first time in more than a year in the three months through October, data showed Wednesday, signaling that the labor market may be softening and adding to signs of economic weakness emerging in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, The Wall Street Journal reported. Deteriorating economic conditions would spell trouble for the ruling Conservatives as they prepare to extricate the U.K. from the European Union, with formal divorce proceedings due to begin early next year.

There is tremendous uncertainty across the world. Electorates in the EU are increasingly tempted by radical populists from the left and right, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to scrap or renegotiate the US’s largest trade deals, which have been in the preparation for years. Institutions that are the product of the postwar political centre ground are now discredited. The world is in the grip of an epochal crisis of political economy.

An increasing number of firms are jeopardising their long-term survival by paying only the interest on their debt, not the capital itself. According to insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, the number of firms in this position has risen to 139,000 – 8 per cent of all UK businesses. Last year it was just 69,000 (4 per cent). Paying off only the interest on debt is often a sign of a ‘zombie business’ – a business surviving only because of low interest rates.