UK preliminary services PMI falls to 52.8 in September from 53.5 expected

• UK services PMI falls to 52.8 in September, beats estimates.
• UK manufacturing PMI falls to 51.5 in September.
• GBP/USD remains in losses near 1.3250 after UK business PMI fell.

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global/CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing Managers (PMI) index fell from 52.5 in August to 51.5 in September. The market forecast was for a reading of 52.3.

Meanwhile, the UK’s preliminary index of services activity fell to 52.8 in September after reading 53.7 in August, while coming in below the market consensus of 53.5.

Commenting on the flash PMI data, Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence said: “A slight slowdown in output growth in the manufacturing and services sector in September should not be considered too concerning as the survey data is still in line with economy growing at a pace. approaching 0.3% in the third quarter, which is in line with the Bank of England’s forecast.”

FX implications

GBP/USD maintained the tone offered near 1.3250 after gloomy UK PMI data. The pair is trading 0.45% lower on the day at the time of writing.