UK Services Rise at Fastest Pace in 10 Months

September 3, 2014 Share Print 0

The UK services sector has recorded its fastest growth for almost a year, a survey suggests.

The Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) hit 60.5 in August, up from 59.1 in July. Any score above 50 indicates expansion.

But a similar survey suggested that growth in the eurozone’s services and manufacturing sectors slowed.

Experts said this would put pressure on the European Central Bank to act at its meeting on Thursday.

The UK PMI survey represented the sharpest rise in business activity in the service sector since October last year.

Demand remained strong with marketing activity increasing as a result, it found.

There were, however, concerns about future levels of business, leading to a fall in overall business confidence to a 15-month low.

Earlier this week, the PMI survey of the manufacturing industry showed the sector grew at its slowest pace in 14 months.

“An acceleration of growth in the vast services sector and an on-going construction boom offset a weakened performance in manufacturing in August,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

He said the services and manufacturing data suggested the UK economy was on course to post “strong” economic growth in the current quarter, in line with the 0.8% recorded in the first two quarters of this year.

via BBC

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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.