{"id":623049,"date":"2026-08-06T05:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/623049\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T05:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:45:11","slug":"services-sector-upbeat-about-prospects-for-year-ahead-as-activity-grows-strongly-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/623049\/","title":{"rendered":"Services sector upbeat about prospects for year ahead as activity grows strongly \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activity in the Irish services sector rose last month, with improved employment prospects and higher overseas demand driving the strongest rate of business activity this year.<\/p>\n

However, transport, tourism<\/a> and leisure continue to lag the sector, clocking up its fifth successive decline in activity in July.<\/p>\n

Overall, the AIB<\/a> services purchasing managers\u2019 index came in at 55.2, up one point on June and its highest reading since November last year. Any reading above 50 signifies growth in the sector with a reading under that level pointing to contraction.<\/p>\n

The July reading brought the index average since 2000 to 55.0.<\/p>\n

The report positions the State\u2019s services industry \u201cwell ahead\u201d of its euro-zone, British and US counterparts. While all three also recorded expanded activity, their readings were noticeably lower at 51.6, 51.8 and 53.6 respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew business continued to grow strongly following a dip in activity earlier in the year, while new export business also expanded sharply on the month, at the fastest pace since end-2024,\u201d said AIB chief economist David McNamara.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irish economy shrank by 1.6% in 12 months to end of June, CSO estimatesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher activity was driven by increased demand, new sales and investment in business capacity,\u201d he said. \u201cIn that context, the volume of outstanding work rose steadily again in July following two months of contradiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the four sectors monitored by the index, only transport, tourism and leisure registered a reading below 50 \u2013 at 49.4 \u2013 its fifth successive monthly decline in activity.<\/p>\n

This sector did see its first increase in new work for six months, \u201calbeit only marginally\u201d, the report noted. It also saw job creation for the first time since January.<\/p>\n

Technology, media and telecoms remained the fastest-growing sector in Ireland last month, recording a reading of 61.4, with business services coming next with 55.4 and then financial services following at 52.6. <\/p>\n

\u201cIrish service providers raised their expectations for growth over the next 12 months to July 2027,\u201d the report said, \u201cwith overall sentiment the strongest of the year so far.\u201d Companies surveyed were optimistic on broader economic growth, investment and recruitment of staff.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Poor productivity in Ireland\u2019s domestic business threatens to hold economy backOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, within that, the outlook among financial services firms was the softest in nearly six years, despite input cost inflation easing to its weakest since March 2021. <\/p>\n

Employment across the sector increased at the quickest rate since April 2023, the report added, while new business growth \u201ceased slightly\u201d, although it was \u201cstill among the strongest over the past four years\u201d.<\/p>\n

McNamara said \u201cinput cost inflation eased further from the 40-month peak reached in April and May to a level broadly in line with the long-run survey average.<\/p>\n

However, there were cost pressures driven by rising wages, supplier and freight costs, energy and fuel. \u201cThe rate of increase in prices charged also decelerated to a five-month low, but it remained elevated in a historical context,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Activity in the Irish services sector rose last month, with improved employment prospects and higher overseas demand driving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[624,79,179,18,19,17,5986],"class_list":["post-623049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-aib","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tourism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117046983016938604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}