LONDON - British companies are enjoying their best month in more than a year, a survey showed on Friday, the strongest evidence yet of a post-election boost to the economy that could deter the Bank of England from cutting interest rates next week.
Britain’s performance bettered the euro zone’s for the first time since December 2018, as the PMI suggested the world’s fifth-largest economy looked on track to grow around 0.2% in quarterly terms after it slowed to a crawl late last year. The composite PMI, which combines manufacturing and services indexes, rose to 52.4 from 49.3, the highest reading since September 2018 and easily beating the 50.6 consensus forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
“It seems likely that the rise in the PMI kills off the prospect of an imminent rate cut by the Bank of England, with policymakers taking a wait-and-see approach as they assess the performance of the economy in the post-Brexit environment,” IHS Markit chief business economist Chris Williamson said.
Dead cat bounce.