It's not all bad news on the British economy

Despite continuing carnage on the stock market, the British economy today received some positive news as house prices held steady and the number of personal insolvencies fell.

But analysts warned it is a very mixed picture and the UK remains vulnerable to eurozone turmoil.

The Halifax house price index nudged up for the third month in a row, by 0.3%. On a quarterly basis, it is up 0.5% - the first increase since May 2010.

But average house prices are still down 2.6% compared with a year ago at £164,000.

The Insolvency Service reported a 12% dive in the number of people going bankrupt on a year-on-year basis - the fourth consecutive quarter of such falls.

However the number of personal insolvences was up on the first three months of the year and corporate insolvencies surged.

Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, warned of "persistent serious concerns over the economic outlook". He expects a 5% decline in house prices in the next year.

There have been other signs in recent days that UK plc is not in such bad health. The Markit/PMI survey of growth in the services sector jumped from 53.9 to 55.4 in July - the fastest in four months and above the long-term average. Any figure above 50 means growth.