Anna Leach, the CBI’s head of economic intelligence, said that persistent cost pressures would ensure inflation stayed, increasing the squeeze on household spending CBIBusiness activity in the UK ended the year on a high note after manufacturers, service sector companies and retailers reported the sharpest rise in output in two years, according to the CBI. Britain’s biggest business lobby group said that a survey of 642 companies across the three sectors showed that growth in the private sector in the three months to December rose to a balance of 19 per cent. This was up from a balance of 6 per cent in three months to November and is the highest reading recorded since December 2015. The balance is calculated from three surveys the CBI conducts for the sectors in which companies are asked whether their output has gone up or declined and the figures for rises and…

Source: The Times December 28, 2017 00:00 UTC