The U.K. service sector continued to perform strongly in September and thereby round off the best quarterly performance of the sector since the second quarter of 1997, data from Markit Economics showed Thursday.
The headline Markit/Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply Purchasing Managers' Index dropped slightly to 60.3 in September from August's near seven-year high of 60.5.
That signaled another strong rise in activity on a monthly basis, and extended the current run of continuous growth to nine months. The sharp increase in activity was once again supported by incoming new business.
September's survey showed employment growth accelerating to a solid rate that was only fractionally lower than June's near six-year high.
Finally, operating costs continued to increase during the latest survey period. Efforts to pass these higher costs onto clients were generally thwarted by ongoing price competition.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.