Activity growth picks up in services sector despite decline in new orders

BUSINESS activity growth in the services sector picked up pace last month, even though June registered the second consecutive monthly fall in new business orders.

According to the latest NCB Stockbrokers Services PMI (purchasing managers’ index), general activity picked up — after marginal growth in May — due to a range of new services and products being offered by respondent companies.

Despite this, however, the actual rate of new orders from customers declined during June for the second month in a row; mainly because of ongoing poor client confidence.