The number of bankruptcies fell 35% to 773 in October, the biggest monthly fall in two years, the bankruptcy register faillissementsdossier.nl reports.

This continues the downward trend in 2014 which has seen the number of bankruptcies fall 24% to 8,431 over the period January to October.

The drop in bankruptcies in October takes in most sectors, including IT where the number of bankruptcies halved and the retail sector where they fell by 40%, the organisation says.

Across the ten months of 2014, the biggest improvement was in the building sector where 902 companies went bankrupt, 34% fewer than during the year earlier period.

Taken regionally, the figures show the biggest improvement in Zeeland where 131 companies went bankrupt compared with 223 in the first ten months of 2013.