Continued growth in new business helped drive expansion in the services sector for the ninth successive month in February, according to the results of a key index published yesterday.

The NCB Stockbrokers Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the services sector came in at 57 in February, a slight drop on the 57.3 recorded in January. It was the ninth month in a row that it came in above the benchmark 50 figure.

Any reading above 50 indicates growth on the previous month, while any result below that signals a contraction in activity. The report yesterday stated that the 600 managers surveyed for the index "widely linked the latest strong growth in activity to similarly sharp rises in volumes of new business during the month".

The data showed that incoming new business reached 57.4 in February. While the report acknowledged that this was weaker than January's 58.8 reading, it pointed out that it was well above the no-change level.

The index signalled that margins also continued to come under pressure in February. Input costs jumped in line with overall activity and new business to 57.1, a weaker rate of inflation than in January, when they rose to 58.8.

However, the prices charged by the businesses surveyed continued to fall, dipping to 47 in February, a sharper fall than the previous month's reading of 48.1. The report stated that a number of panellists said price competition had been "fierce".

Employment showed solid growth reaching 51.8, an improvement on January's result of 50.4. At the same time, business confidence in February remained high at 78.7, compared with 81.2 in January.