LONDON: Growth in the UK’s dominant service sector slowed last month, according to a closely watched survey, while price pressures “remained intense”. The Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index (PMI) recorded its first slowdown in the services sector for four months. The index fell to 54.5 in January from the previous month’s reading of 56.2. However, a reading above 50 still indicates the sector is expanding, and Markit said the economy was on track for a “buoyant” start to 2017.
Similar surveys from Markit/CIPS released earlier in the week suggested a slight slowdown in activity in both the manufacturing and construction sectors. But Markit said the surveys together suggested the UK economy would grow by a “robust” 0.5% in the first quarter of the year, if current trends continued. On Thursday, the Bank of England revised up its forecast for the UK economy this year, and now expects it to grow by 2%.
