The UK service sector continued to perform strongly in September to thereby round off the best quarterly performance of the sector since Q2 1997. Activity and new business both rose at rates close to August’s highs, while there was a return to solid employment growth following the previous month’s slowdown. After accounting for seasonal factors, the headline figure from the report, the Business Activity Index, recorded a level of 60.3, only fractionally down on August’s near seven-year high of 60.5. That signalled another strong rise in activity on a monthly basis, and extended the current run of continuous growth to ... (full story)