Although growth in the UK\u2019s dominant service sector slowed slightly in June, overall expansion remained strong, indicating further strengthening of the economy in the first half of 2014 and pointing to a buoyant six months to come.<\/p>\n
According to the Markit\/CIPS services purchasing managers\u2019 index (PMI), the sector, which accounts for some three-quarters of UK GDP, registered 57.7 in June, down slightly from May\u2019s 58.6, but well above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction.<\/p>\n
Moreover, hiring in the sector reached record heights during the month, with the employment sub-division of the index rising to 58.8 from 56.2, the highest reading in the survey\u2019s history. Meanwhile, new business grew at the fastest rate in six months, with panellists reporting that trading conditions remained positive and market confidence high.<\/p>\n
Taken in conjunction with Markit data that showed both manufacturing and construction gaining in strength led a spokesman for the firm to comment that the economy is now \u201cfiring on all cylinders\u201d and it is now thought likely that GDP growth will remain at an annual rate of 3 per cent until 2015.<\/p>\n
However, there has been a tendency for employers to hire staff on low wages to fulfil orders rather than invest in new premises and equipment, but the rise in new work and a tightening job market is likely to force firms to change course on this.<\/p>\n
Given the strength of the three unofficial but closely watched surveys, the pressure is now building for policymakers to think about raising interest rates sooner rather than later, although the Bank of England\u2019s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which sets the rate, is concerned that, while employment has increased, much of it has been amongst the self-employed and wage rises across most sectors remain weak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although growth in the UK\u2019s dominant service sector slowed slightly in June, overall expansion remained strong, indicating further strengthening of the economy in the first half of 2014 and pointing to a buoyant six months to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}