Britain's service sector accelerated unexpectedly in August and firms were optimistic about future business despite recent interest rate rises and credit market turmoil, a survey showed on today.
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply/NTC activity index - covering businesses ranging from hotels to financial services - rose to 57.6 last month from 57 in July.
Analysts had forecast a pullback to 56.5.
"This survey shows there is still a degree of robustness in the economy and that some upside risks remain to interest rate prospects," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec.
The Bank of England is widely expected to leave interest rates at 5.75 per cent tomorrow but some analysts suspect rates will go up again this year as other indicators have also pointed to a robust UK economy.
Data earlier this week showed British manufacturing activity surged to a three-year high in August and Halifax data this session showed annual house price inflation accelerating.
The resilience of the sector in Britain contrasts with slowing services growth in the euro zone, where market turbulence helped drive future business confidence to its lowest in more than four years.
Responses to the survey were gathered in the second half of August so would have taken into account the sharp widening of credit spreads earlier that month.
"These results point to further sharp growth of the services economy," said Andrew Grantham, an economist at NTC.