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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 7, 1992                   TAG: 9201070036
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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ENTREPRENEURS DEFY RECESSION TALK

It may defy "recession logic," but the number of licenses issued for new businesses in the Roanoke area at the end of 1991 was higher than December 1990.

Last month Roanoke issued 60 business licenses and Roanoke County approved 31 more.

The 77 percent growth over the previous year came in the city, which issued 34 licenses in December 1990.

The number of new licenses in the county, 32, was nearly even with the pace set the year before.

In other statistics this week in the regional economic indicators:

C&P Telephone Co. reported 22 fewer telephone access lines in December than in November. C&P said 127,895 lines were in use in December, compared to 127,917 in November. A company official could not readily account for the decrease but suspected it may have been caused by "a business that closed down."

Wheat First Security's Index of 20 area stocks posted another gain, finishing December at 159.8 compared to 138.7 in December 1990. - Staff report

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