U.K. Services Index Increased to Three-Year High in February

U.K. Services Index Increased to Three-Year High in February

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. services from banks to publishers expanded at the fastest pace in three years last month as the economy exited recession.

An index based on replies from about 700 service companies jumped to 58.4, from 54.5 in January, the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Markit Economics said in a statement today in London. The median forecast of 29 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was 55. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

“The services sector is pretty much firing on all cylinders now,” David Noble, chief executive at CIPS, said in the statement. “February saw business activity surge at its fastest rate in over three years as the sector helps to drive the U.K. economy further out of recession.”

Britain’s economy exited the slump at a faster than previously estimated pace in the final three months of 2009. Consumer confidence jumped last month, Nationwide Building Society said today, while a report earlier this week showed the CIPS index of manufacturing activity held at a 15-year high.

As elections loom, Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour government is narrowing the gap with the Conservatives. Both parties are battling to convince voters they are best placed to drive Britain’s recovery.

Standard Chartered Plc, the British bank that makes more than 90 percent of pretax earnings in Asia, said today that full-year profit rose 4.3 percent after lending to companies rose. Reed Elsevier Plc, the publisher of Variety magazine, said on Feb. 18 that profit rose last year, boosted by revenue from ChoicePoint Inc., its U.S.-based provider of data services to the insurance industry.

source: bloomberg