Sterling hit as UK PMI falls to lowest level since financial crisis

UK economy hits a seven-year low

Daniel Flynn
clock • 2 min read

Sterling has fallen over 0.8% as it was revealed Markit's Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) hit its lowest level since the global financial crisis after last month's Brexit vote.

The PMI shows a month-on-month fall from 52.4 to 47.7 in July, its lowest level since April 2009 and a "dramatic deterioration" in the UK economy, with a reading below 50 indicating economic contraction. However, despite both manufacturing and services sectors seeing a decline in output and orders this month, exports picked up, driven by the weakening of the pound. The readings from the PMI, which surveys more than 650 services companies from a variety of sectors, were worse than many analysts expected. It comes hours after new Chancellor Philip Hammond said he plans to "reset" UK ...

To continue reading this article...

Join Investment Week for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
  • Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
  • Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
  • Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
  • Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes

Join now

 

Already an Investment Week
member?

Login

More on UK

Trustpilot