Purchasing managers index shows growth
It would appear that the services industry has turned a corner with an indication that activity in September was sharply higher than that seen in recent months. Since February 2010, when the index was 58.4, there has been an ongoing decline although this pattern was broken in September when the figure improved from 51.4 in August to 52.8. So what does this mean for the UK services sector?
Despite the doom and gloom in the financial press and the reluctant acceptance that the UK economy is struggling, it seems that the service industry is battling back. When you also take into account the austerity measures introduced by the UK government this performance in September, compared to August and the previous seven months, is even better than it initially looks. However, if the UK economy does take a downturn then the services industry will be at the forefront of these economic difficulties and will do well to remain in positive territory.
For many years now the service industry has been the major element of the UK economy with manufacturing and other traditional strengths of the UK business arena having fallen by the wayside. Even though manufacturing has made something of a recovery over the last couple of years it is still nowhere near the level seen 20 years ago.
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