UK services growth slowest in 2 years

Business in Britain's dominant service sector grew at the slowest pace in almost two years in October and optimism about the outlook waned, a survey showed on Monday, pointing to a fragile economic recovery. The main Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the service sector, measuring the change in business activity including income and chargeable hours worked, eased to 50.6 last month from 52.2 in September, holding just above the 50 line that separates growth from contraction. It was the lowest reading since December 2010 and fell short of analysts' forecasts for a smaller dip to 52.0.