NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's secretary of state says new business filings increased by more than 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the previous year.

A news release from Secretary of State Tre Hargett's office Thursday says this was the fourth-straight quarter in which new business filings jumped by more than 10 percent in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report documented about 9,800 new entity filings in the fourth quarter of 2018. It says a total of about 42,900 new business entity filings were processed with the secretary of state's Division of Business Services last year.

Hargett's office says there have been 29 consecutive quarters of positive annual growth in new business filings.