It's Not All Doo Om and Gloom; Many Firms Continue to Thrive despite the Tough Economic Conditions. Bill Gleeson Reports

Byline: Bill Gleeson

TO LISTEN to some commentators, you could be forgiven for thinking the eurozone crisis is about to push Britain back into recession. However, a more objective analysis of some of the recent economic data and company results suggests that not everything is going wrong.

Last week, for example, saw stronger-than-expected growth in the allimportant services sector. The service sector is the biggest segment of the UK economy and its performance in December may have saved the economy from contraction in the final quarter of 2011.

The Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), where a reading above 50 indicates growth, showed services rose to 54 in December, up from 52.1 the previous month. City analysts had expected the reading to fall to 51.5.

It comes on top of better-than-expected performances for the manufacturing and construction sectors in December.

The reading across all three sectors rose to 53.2 in December from 51.2 in November in the strongest expansion since July.

Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said: "Services are likely to have expanded by …

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Publication information: Article title: It's Not All Doo Om and Gloom; Many Firms Continue to Thrive despite the Tough Economic Conditions. Bill Gleeson Reports. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Daily Post (Liverpool, England). Publication date: January 11, 2012. Page number: 8. © 2009 MGN Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2012 Gale Group.

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