Britain's service sector growth slowed to 0.1 per cent in October from a slightly upwardly revised 0.5 per cent in September after a fall in distribution services output, official data showed today.
The data offer the first official figures on how the largest segment of Britain's economy performed early in the fourth quarter of 2009, when private-sector economists expect a return to GDP growth of around 0.4 per cent after a contraction of 0.2 per cent in the third quarter.
The Office for National Statistics said services output fell 0.2 per cent in the three months to October - a rate of decline unchanged from that in the three months to September, the latter in line with figures in the final estimate of third-quarter GDP published yesterday.
The slowdown in the month-on-month rate of service sector growth in October was driven by a 0.4 per cent fall in distribution - businesses such as retail - which grew 3.2 per cent in September.
The other main service industries - government, business and finance, transport and communication, and hotels and restaurants - all grew modestly in October, with little variation from September's pace of change.
Year-on-year, the rate of contraction in the services sector slowed slightly to 3.7 per cent in October from 3.8 per cent in September.
The ONS also reported that productivity across all sectors of the economy fell 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of the year after a 0.3 per cent rise in the second quarter. Year-on-year, productivity was down 3.1 per cent in Q3 compared to a 3.5 per cent fall in Q2.
Reuters