UK private sector businesses experienced a softer expansion in activity during November, primarily due to a loss of momentum in the service sector, which reported a decline in new work for the first time since July. On a positive note, manufacturers registered their first increase in total new orders in over a year, supporting a sustained (albeit slower) uplift in goods production. Average output prices meanwhile rose at their slowest rate in nearly five years, even as input price pressures accelerated. Amid tight margins and heightened policy uncertainty, firms reduced their headcounts more aggressively than in ... (full story)