THE UK services sector grew marginally last month, having contracted in March, but new orders continued to fall as Brexit weighed, and employment was broadly flat, a survey shows.

Publishing the survey yesterday, the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply said: “New sales to overseas customers also softened in April, which continued the downward trend recorded since September 2018. A number of firms noted that Brexit uncertainty had a negative influence on demand from European clients.”

CIPS’s business activity index for services rose from a 32-month low of 48.9 in March to 50.4 last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, moving marginally above the level of 50 deemed to separate expansion from contraction.

In spite of the sector’s continuing weakness, services companies’ overall optimism about the prospects for increased activity on a 12-month time horizon rose to its greatest since last September.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at CIPS survey compiler IHS Markit, noted that the latest reports on services, manufacturing and construction activity together pointed to the UK economy remaining “more or less stagnant” at the start of the second quarter.

CIPS noted that, where a rise in new export work was reported by services companies, these firms often commented on greater sales to US markets. It observed the recent trend in services employment was the weakest since the end of 2012.

Mr Williamson said: “A near-stagnant service sector in April means that all three major parts of the economy were struggling to grow in April.”