The third of the UK PMIs has come in today (After construction fell and manufacturing rose), and the service sector is also seeing a return to growth, with the index recording a level of 51.5 (where 50 is equal to no change).
Markit economics, which produces the index, writes:
A return to growth of the UK service sector was signalled at the start of 2013 as volumes of incoming new business increased and companies boosted capacity by adding to their payrolls.
Confidence in the future also strengthened, reaching an eight-month high, but margins continued to be squeezed as output charges rose at a considerably slower rate than input costs.
Combined with the other PMIs, the picture remains far from rosy, but at least the UK appears to be stagnating rather than actively shrinking. It fits with the view of the economy becoming corrugated — flipping from mild growth to mild contraction with the overriding trend being stagnating. The all-sectors PMI, which aggregates the information in the previous releases, ought to confirm that tomorrow.
With services the most important sector of the UK economy — for better or worse — the return to growth is a “huge sigh of relief” according to Markit’s chief economist Chris Williamson:
Stronger growth would inevitably have been recorded had the country not suffered the heavy snowfall, suggesting the underlying trend is even stronger than these numbers indicate.
With services companies’ confidence also picking up, new business rising for the first time in three months and hiring growing at the fastest rate for six months, the sector looks to be on a renewed upswing which should help the economy grow again in the first quarter.
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