Britain's services PMI points to strong growth in Q2

British services sector purchasing managers' index (PMI) declined slightly to 58.6 in May from 58.7 in April, but exceeded market estimates of 58.2, figures from Markit showed Wednesday.
The services sector dominated Britain's economy, contributing around three quarters of GDP, according to Office of National Statistics (ONS).
Business activity in the British services sector continued to increase markedly during May, supported by another firm increase in volumes of incoming new work, said the London-based survey compiler.
"May's survey also showed the strongest increase in employment for seven months and the joint sharpest rise for 17 years as staff were hired to help deal with higher sales and work outstanding," said Markit.
Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said in a press release that "the UK economy continued to boom in May, in what is the best spell of growth since 2007."
Together with the figures from similar upbeat manufacturing and construction reports, the leading indicators collectively suggest that the economy is "on course to grow by 0.8 percent again" in the second quarter, projects Williamson.
Manufacturing and construction PMIs were 57 and 60 respectively in May, far exceeding the 50 sector activities watershed, according to data released earlier this week.
Samuel Tombs, British economist at Capital Economics, commented in an analysis piece that "the services survey may provide some reassurance to the Monetary Policy Committee (of the British central bank) that strong growth is not causing inflationary pressures to build."
"Although the input prices balance rose to a four month high in May, the output prices index fell slightly and to a level consistent with modest inflation in the service sector," he said.
Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY ITEM Club, also commented in a note: "These latest figures complete a solid set of PMI surveys for the month. Although all three sectors softened a touch from April, they were still at historically high levels. A robust broad-based expansion GDP growth of 0.8 percent in the second quarter looks eminently achievable, repeating Q1's expansion."