Surprise increase for US services while UK suffers_2
19 July 2012
Purchasing activity in the US non-manufacturing sector has made an unexpected jump, although manufacturing has continued to decline following the recent terrorist attack.
But the UK services sector fell for the first time since February 1999 amid widespread cancellations of conference, hotel and travel bookings.
According to the National Association for Purchasing Management (NAPM), the US non- manufacturing purchasing managers’ index confounded expectations by rising 4.7 points to 50.2 in September, above the 50 mark that...