In April, UK services PMI surprised on the downside of expectations. The headline figure weakened from 55.3 to 53.3, while a more moderate drop was expected. Already for the 16th consecutive month, the index is above the 50 benchmark level, but now showed the weakest pace of expansion since November last year. The details were however not so bad as expectations jumped to a 25 month high, boding well for the coming months. But margins remained under pressure as input prices rose sharply. Although the PMI’s improved in the first quarter of the year, this was not in line with the growth figures published last week, which showed the UK fell back into recession. The April figures show that the second quarter started even on a weaker footing with both services and manufacturing PMI dropping lower in April, indicating that uncertainty remains high.