South Korea business failures rise in April

South Korean corporate bankruptcies jumped to 89 in April from the record low of 69 in March as liquidity supply eased, the Bank of Korea reported Tuesday. The central bank said April saw a tapering off of liquidity injected during the Lunar New Year holiday which fell on Feb. 10 this year, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. The bank also said the number of new businesses grew to 6,376 in April, up 22 from March. The bank lowered its growth estimate for this year to 2.6 percent from an earlier estimate of 2.8 percent. However, it is still higher than the government's 2013 growth estimate of 2.3 percent.