The number of corporate bankruptcies during the first six months of 2002 rose 4.7 percent from a year earlier to 9,872, the third-highest number since World War II, Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Friday.

The credit research agency attributed the rise mainly to the recession and the continued decline in prices.

Of the bankrupt firms, 7,497, or 75.9 percent, collapsed due to recession-induced factors, including poor sales and exports, difficulties in collecting payments for sales and increased bad loans. The percentage of such failures was the highest for a postwar first half, the agency said.