Growth in the UK’s services economy cooled in September, survey results from S&P Global showed on Thursday.

The headline seasonally adjusted services purchasing managers’ index decreased to 52.4 points in September from 53.7 in August. September’s reading was below the flash estimate, published on September 23, of 52.8 points.

Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence said: ‘The September PMI surveys suggest that the UK economy is still on a positive trajectory, with improving order books accompanied by cooling inflationary pressures.

‘UK service providers indicated a moderate expansion of activity in September, fuelled by resilient business and consumer spending...Robust domestic demand has been recorded throughout the third quarter of 2024, helping to offset a headwind from lacklustre export sales.’

The seasonally adjusted composite output PMI also edged downwards to 52.6 points in September from 53.8 in August. This reflects the slowest rate of growth recorded since June and again came in below flash estimates of 52.9 points. Released on Tuesday, the manufacturing PMI fell to 51.5 points in September from August’s 26-month high of 52.5.

‘Private sector firms also signalled the weakest rises in new work and employment for three months. Prices charged inflation moderated again, despite sharper cost pressures, with the latest reading the lowest since February 2021,’ S&P Global commented.

The services PMI is compiled by S&P Global using responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 650 companies in a wide range of service sectors. Responses are collected in the second half of each month.

The composite output index is a weighted average of the manufacturing output index and the services business activity index, with the weighting based on size of each sector within the UK economy.

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