UK Service Sector Slows Down in September

Britain’s dominant services sector grew at the slowest pace in three months in September in the latest sign that economic recovery is losing steam.

The sector, which accounts for about three-quarters of the UK economy, has enjoyed an unbroken run of growth for 21 months according to the closely watched Markit/CIPS PMI, but the pace of growth last month failed to meet City expectations.

The headline index measuring activity in businesses including hotels, restaurants and hairdressers, fell to 58.7 in September from 60.5 in August. Anything above 50 indicates expansion.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said: “September’s PMI surveys suggest that the UK most likely enjoyed another spell of above-trend economic growth in the third quarter, but the recovery appears to be losing its legs.”

 
The services PMI followed equivalent surveys earlier in the week for manufacturing and construction. Williamson said that taken together, the PMIs suggested overall UK growth in the third quarter slowed to 0.8% from 0.9% in the second.

via The Guardian

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza