After already a significant decline in both manufacturing and construction PMI in April, also the UK services PMI disappointed. In April, UK services PMI fell from 57.1 to 54.3, while the consensus was looking for a more moderate decline. Output prices, on the contrary, continued to increase rising to the highest level in 2.5 years. While new businesses grew at its fastest pace since March 2010, business expecta-tions eased further to reach its lowest level since December. Excluding the snow-related drop in December, services PMI saw its largest decline since October 2008. Markit, the company responsible for the data, added that the deterioration in the sector’s performance could be largely linked to the government spending cuts. After an awful fourth quarter of 2010 and a weak first quarter, these data suggest that the economy failed to pick up speed after a weak start of the year.