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BOB MOON: We’re getting more ominous forecasts about the economic year to come. A new report suggests we will see an increase in the number of companies going under in 2007. Marketplace’s Jeff Tyler reports.

JEFF TYLER: The number of corporate bankruptcies is expected to rise 17 percent next year.

That’s the prediction from Global Insight, an economic forecasting company. Mining firms, energy companies and the real estate industry are most vulnerable.

Fuel prices and higher interest rates are partly to blame, and spokesman Mark Killion says the projected bump in bankruptcies is . . .

MARK KILLION: “Largely attributable to a slow down in the economy, a slow down in economic growth. Bankruptcies have been relatively low. But that seems to be bottoming out now.”

Going forward, a select few industries are forecast to improve next year.

Killion expects fewer auto companies will go bust. And higher commodity prices should help farmers avoid the bankruptcy bug.

I’m Jeff Tyler for Marketplace.