The number of judicial recovery requests in Brazil declined by 21.3% year over year to 322 incidences in the first quarter of 2017, according to data from credit research firm Serasa Experian.

The fall in the claims for judicial recovery was due to slower inflation, interest rates and the gradual recovery from the economic recession, all of which facilitate the renegotiation of debts by companies, Serasa said. Judicial recoveries are part of Brazil's bankruptcy law where debtors must present creditors with a recovery plan on how they will pay back debt.

Micro and small companies had 201 judicial recovery requests for the period, followed by medium-sized companies with 71 and large companies with 50.

In the month of March alone, the number of judicial recovery requests was at 125, down 20.9% from the year-ago quarter and 8.7% from the previous month.

Serasa also noted there were 394 bankruptcy applications in the period, 0.8% higher than a year ago. Micro and small companies were responsible for 208 bankruptcy requests while medium-sized and large companies each accounted for 79 and 107 applications, respectively.