The UK economy is set for another "robust" quarter after the dominant services sector defied the floods to report more strong growth in February.
The headline reading of 58.2 in the closely watched Markit/CIPS purchasing managers' index (PMI) was the lowest since June but still came in well ahead of the level of 50 that separates growth from contraction.
Growth has now been recorded for 14 months and the latest increase in output was supported by another marked rise in new business. Confidence in the outlook also strengthened to the highest for nearly four-and-a-half years.
The survey found that adverse weather in some parts of the UK disrupted activity but that the relatively mild winter had also provided a support to growth.
Alongside good performances in PMI manufacturing and construction, Markit said the upbeat picture of the services economy points to the UK enjoying another quarter of robust economic growth of approximately 0.7%.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article