There was a sharp rise in activity in the services sector in August. There was a sharp rise in activity in the services sector in August. The improvement was driven by strong client demand, with the new business index increasing slightly from the prior month’s level and indicating a sharp rise in activity, according to the latest Services Purchases Managers Index (PMI) from specialist bank Investec. The headline PMI increased to 58.0, having fallen to a four-month low of 57.4 in July. Rising new business resulted in a further accumulation of backlogs of work during August, although the pace at which outstanding business increased eased in the month.

Source: Irish Independent September 05, 2018 05:48 UTC