The big question is how businesses in the service sector will cope with the withdrawal of the government’s job retention schemeA surge in spending strengthened the services sector last month, but did not stop companies from laying off more staff owing to fears about tough times to come with the end of government support schemes. The UK services sector grew at its fastest rate in more than five years in August, rising to 59.1 from 57.0 in July. The reading by the IHS Markit/CIPS Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a gauge of activity in services and manufacturing companies, was revised down from a preliminary reading of 60.3, suggesting that the end of the month may have been weaker than the start. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, said: “New business in the services sector grew at the fastest rate since December

Source: The Times September 03, 2020 11:03 UTC