The unleashing of pent-up demand has given Britain’s service sector its fastest monthly growth in more than seven years despite some signs of a flattening-out of activity in the past week, two separate snapshots of the economy have shown. In its monthly health check, IHS Markit/CIPS reported sharp increases in consumer and business spending as lockdown restrictions were eased. With many businesses in the hospitality and leisure sector still affected by Covid-19 restrictions, the ONS said an estimated 3.3 million workers remained on furlough. Tim Moore, economics director at IHS Markit, said: “The roadmap for reopening leisure, hospitality and other customer-facing activities resulted in a sharp increase in forward bookings and new project starts across the service sector. If the rebound in order books continues along its recent trajectory during the rest of the second quarter, then service sector output growth looks very likely to surpass the survey-record high seen back in April 1997.

Source: The Guardian May 06, 2021 11:26 UTC