By David Friend, The Canadian Press  -

Canadian consumers and businesses are going bust at an alarming rate as the sputtering domestic economy continues to show signs of further trouble ahead.

Bankruptcy filings soared nearly 46.7 per cent in December, the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy said Monday.

The report by the federal monitoring agency found that 8,299 individuals and businesses went bankrupt in December, up from 5,659 for December 2007.