ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The number of U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings finally made some significant downward movement in November, according to data collected and posted by the American Bankruptcy Institute.

On a month-over-month comparison, November filings actually dropped by 13.3 percent to 114,587 filings nationwide. Information from the National Bankruptcy Research Center indicated there were 132,173 total consumer filings recorded in October.

ABI cautioned however that the November figure still represented a 2.2-percent rise from the amount filed in the same month last year. Officials noted 112,152 filings came in November 2009.

Also of note, the institute mentioned Chapter 13 filings constituted 29.6 percent of all consumer cases in November, a slight decrease from October

ABI executive director Samuel Gerdano gave a mixed response to the latest data.

"The drop in consumer filings from October is perhaps a positive step that the deleveraging of the U.S. consumer may be under way, after years of expanding consumer debt," Gerdano offered. "Still, we anticipate that there will be nearly 1.6 million consumer bankruptcy filings by year end."