S Korea's corporate bankruptcies jump in October

South Korea's corporate bankruptcies jumped last month as defaults in the manufacturing and service industries gained sharply amid the persistent economic slowdown caused by external uncertainties, data by the central bank showed Monday. The number of companies that went belly-up stood at 116 in October, up 14 from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The number of failures in service firms increased by 13 last month, with those for manufacturers and builders rising by 6 and 1 respectively. The bankruptcies in other companies declined by 6 last month. The increase in company defaults came as the economic slowdown lasted in the Asia's No. 4 economy amid the lingering external uncertainties such as the eurozone fiscal crisis and the U.S. fiscal cliff issue. The central bank slashed its 202 growth outlook for the country to 2.4 percent from an earlier estimate of 3 percent last month. Meanwhile, the number of newly established firms stood at 5,639 in October, down from 5,695 tallied in September. The default rate on corporate bills, including bonds, checks and promissory notes, came in at 0.16 percent last month, up 0.02 percentage point from the previous month.