Irish service sector continued to experience marked growth of activity and new business in January. Rate of job creation picked up.
The survey covers all private sector services in Ireland, excluding retail and wholesale, and provides timely data on an area of the economy that is not well covered by official data.
The data are derived from questionnaires sent to a panel of around 600 Irish private services companies that have agreed to supply regular information on trends in their activity levels. Monthly data have been collected since May 2000.
Companies in the services sector reported a sharp pick-up in activity in January, according to the latest survey conducted on behalf of NCB stockbrokers.
The monthly PMI services index used to gauge activity among services firms recorded a reading of 57.8 in January. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.
Commenting on the survey, Mr Dermot O'Brien, chief economist at NCB said the Januaruy figure that the private services sector is growing strongly with all activity components holding close to recent highs and employment growth accelerating in January.
"Continued robust results for this very important sector underline the positive prospects for economy-wide growth this year", he said.
Firms reported rising levels of new business, and a number of firms commented on the initiation of sales drives to take advantage of favourable market conditions.
Staffing levels were shown to have increased again in January, with recruitment reported as necessary to accommodate rising levels of new business.
Furthermore, the rate of job creation picked up, after easing through December.