The number of defaults by corporate debt issuers fell by nearly 80 percent last year, according to a report issued Monday by Moody’s Investor Service.
According to Moody’s, only 57 of the corporate debt issuers it rates globally, defaulted on a total loss of $39.1 billion 2010. This number is down dramatically from 2009’s Moody’s-rated corporate defaults of 265 totaling $330 billion. In 2008, 108 companies defaulted on $280.9 billion in debt.