UK PMI Manufacturing rose to 55.3 in August, up from 53.3, beat expectation of 53.6. That’s the highest level in 30 months. PMI Services jumped to 60.1, up from 56.5, above expectation of 57.0, a 72-month high. PMI Composite rose to 60.3, up from 567.0, a 82-month high.
Tim Moore, Economics Director at IHS Markit, said: “August’s data illustrates that the recovery has gained speed across both the manufacturing and service sectors since July. The combined expansion of UK private sector output was the fastest for almost seven years, following sharp improvements in business and consumer spending from the lows seen in April…. Positive signals for the recovery of course need to be considered in the context of UK GDP shrinking by around one-fifth during the second quarter of the year. Survey respondents often noted that it could take more than a year to return output to pre-pandemic levels and there were widespread concerns that the honeymoon period for growth may begin to fade through the autumn months.”
Little progress made at 7th Brexit talks
Little to no progress was made in at the seventh round of Brexit negotiations. EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said “those who were hoping for negotiations to move swiftly forward this week will have bee disappointed and unfortunately I too am frankly disappointed and concerned, and surprised as well.”
Barnier further criticized, “the British negotiators have not shown any real willingness to move forward on issues of fundamental importance for the European Union and this despite the flexibility which we have shown over recent months.”
On the other hand, UK’s chief negotiator David Frost said, “substantive work continues to be necessary across a range of different areas of potential UK-EU future cooperation if we are to deliver it. We have had useful discussions this week but there has been little progress.”
Frost also blamed that “the EU is still insisting not only that we must accept continuity with EU state aid and fisheries policy, but also that this must be agreed before any further substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation, including on legal texts. This makes it unnecessarily difficult to make progress.”