United Kingdom: Services PMI falls in May but continues to point to expansion
The S&P Global UK Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 52.9 in May from April’s value of 55.0. As a result, the index remained above the 50.0 no-change threshold, but signaled a softer improvement in services-sector business activity compared to the previous month.
May saw slowdowns in business activity and new orders. Moreover, subdued overseas demand and difficulties in conducting business with EU customers lead to only a marginal increase in new export business. More positively, jobs growth improved and companies expressed strong optimism towards the year-ahead outlook, buoyed by hopes for lower interest rates and improvements in the domestic economy.
Price pressures in the UK services sector showed a significant easing, with the rate of input cost inflation dropping to its weakest since February 2021. This resulted in the slowest rate of increase in overall charges for UK services in over three years.