Cable runs up 28 pips from 1.6192 to 1.6220.
- Best quarter of activity since Q2 1997
- Employment growth continued in September, some respondents noted wage increases
- Business confidence increased
- Operating costs up mostly on fuel and utility costs
- Output prices up, but businesses are still struggling to pass on cost increases fully due to price competition in the market
“Businesses in the vast service sector reported an
ongoing growth spurt in September, expanding at a
rate just shy of August‟s recent high. The buoyant
data follow similar upbeat surveys of the
manufacturing and construction sectors, and
collectively the surveys suggest the economy will
have expanded by as much as 1.2% in the third
quarter; its fastest growth rate since the pre-crisis
days of 2007.
“Growth is being led by financial services (linked in
part to increased housing market activity) and the
business sector. Consumer-facing services
continue to struggle, reflecting the ongoing squeeze
on incomes due to weak pay growth and high
inflation.
“There are encouraging signs that the strong pace
of expansion will persist in the coming months:
September saw one of the largest inflows of new
business ever seen by the services survey,
business confidence about the year ahead picked
up again and other surveys have shown the mood
among households to have also improved.
“Not surprisingly, employers are taking on more
staff to meet growing demand, which should help
bring unemployment down.
Chris Williamson at Markit
A good show of continued growth in the sector which is the largest part of UK GDP. Employment is picking up here also so the recovery is continuing and is broad based. Like the other reports we’ll no doubt get a rises levelling off at some point, but as long as we don’t see figures starting to trend lower then we’ll be doing fine and dandy. Let’s hope the government don’t botch it up as usual.
