As the national figures for the second quarter of this year revealed a jump in warnings - 11 per cent up on the same period last year, and the highest second-quarter figure since 2001 - the north west saw a big dip, from 11 in the first quarter of this year to just four.
Despite this, experts are pessimistic. Tom Jack, a partner at Ernst & Young in Manchester, which compiled the figures, said: "This is a blip rather than a recovering trend.
"The region continues to suffer, as businesses do across the UK, from falling demand and challenges in raising new finance."
E&Y said that its prediction at the start of the year that the household goods and home construction sectors would come most under pressure had been proved true.
The general retail sector's profit warnings total for the first six months of 2008 was 29 - the highest from the sector in the first half of any year.
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