Latest data released by Markit/CIPS - 3 June 2020
- Prior 13.4
- Composite PMI 30.0 vs 28.9 prelim
- Prior 13.8
The preliminary release can be found here. A slight revision higher to the initial estimates but much like the Eurozone reading, the headline just reaffirms that business activity is seen improving from April to May.
Overall conditions still points to a contraction in the UK economy, but the pace of the decline has eased compared to April. New business and new work continues to suffer and declined at its second-fastest pace on record, only surpassed by the drop in April.
Markit notes that:
"The COVID-19 pandemic continued to have a severe impact on UK service sector activity in May, despite a boost in some areas from the gradual easing of lockdown measures. Survey respondents noted that deep cuts to corporate spending had been a major factor dragging down business activity in May, leading to a lack of work to replace completed projects.
"A number of firms cited limited opportunities to win new orders with clients placed on furlough, as well as a hit to workloads from the postponement of new projects. Consumer demand also remained very subdued, with large areas of the service economy still in the planning stage of restarting business operations.
"Service providers recorded another modest improvement in their business expectations from the low point seen in March, with some hopeful that the reopening of clients' business operations would start to boost activity in the coming months.
"However, customer-facing businesses continue to report extreme levels of concern about their near-term prospects, with efforts to adapt to social distancing measures set to hold back capacity and generate a sharp increase in costs."
