03/09/2001

Service sector optimism continues to drop

A survey by accountancy firm Deloitte and Touche, on behalf of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), has shown that service sector profitability and optimism in the UK have fallen at their fastest rate in three years.

The survey also revealed that Britain's service sector firms are losing confidence in the economy with fears growing of a deepening recession.

Meanwhile, a monthly report by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) has indicated that Britain's manufacturers are still mired in recession. The data also threw doubt on the health of the service sector, which has remained in relatively good shape while manufacturing has slumped.

Retail sales are also likely to show continuing strength in the latest report by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which is expected to show a relatively strong August, suggesting that recession in the consumer sector is still a long way off.

Britain's manufacturing sector officially slipped into recession last month as output fell for the second successive quarter, according to the office for National Statistics. (MB)

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