Ireland: Services PMI falls in August, but remains in expansionary territory
The IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 63.7 in August from July’s 66.6. As such, the index remained well above the 50-threshold, signaling a continued improvement in business conditions from the previous month, albeit at a weaker pace.
The lower reading owed itself to slightly slower total services output growth compared to July, although it was still the second strongest since the beginning of 2016: Technology, media and telecommunications firms enjoyed particularly robust output growth. Against this backdrop, employment continued to rise sharply, as the economic panorama remained bright. New business rose for the sixth month running, while incomplete workloads continued to increase. Amid such a strong level of business activity, cost pressures surged, with input price inflation reaching the highest level since December 2000, and output prices also rising rapidly as service providers passed through higher costs onto the customers.