Japan's service sectors continues to expand in October
The rate of expansion in Japan’s services sector picked up momentum in October, figures released on Wednesday showed.
The latest Nikkei/Markit survey showed the purchasing managers’ index monitoring the services sector rose from 51.4 in September to 52.2 last month, the best reading since August and the second-highest since September 2014.
The expansion was largely driven by a growth in new orders and supported by a robust increase in overall activity, even though the sub-index tracking business sentiment declined to a five-month low.
Growth in new work intakes was little-changed from September’s low, but was in line with the average seen over the year so far, the report added.
Despite evidence of greater activity, service sector firms cut back on their staffing levels at the sharpest pace since December 2011.
Meanwhile, the composite index rose to 52.3 from 51.2 in September.