Growth of the UK service sector was unchanged during May at a solid rate, supported by a further marked gain in incoming new business. Companies kept on top of workloads through the recruitment of new staff, although worries over the Eurozone debt crisis and a tough operating environment led to a fall in business confidence to the lowest of 2012 so far. Reflective of strong competition and client pressure to reduce fees, average output charges were cut in May for the first time in three months. This coincided with a marked fall in input cost inflation to the lowest since October 2009. The headline index from the ... (full story)