Britain rebounded further from last year's technical recession in April as the service sector notched up a sixth consecutive month of growth.
S&P's Global UK Services PMI climbed to 55 in April, the final reading for the month showed on Friday.
This was up from 53.1 in March and above a preliminary reading of 54.9.
Marking the fastest rate of business activity growth since May last year, S&P Global director Tim Moore said the figures showed further improvement in the UK economy.
“The latest survey results are consistent with the UK economy growing at a quarterly rate of 0.4% and therefore pulling further out of last year’s shallow recession,” he commented.
“Relief at a turnaround in the economic outlook was commonly cited as a factor supporting sales pipelines in April.”
However, some businesses reported clients were remaining risk averse to elevated inflation, while election uncertainty and fading hopes for base interest cuts were also cited as headwinds.
Tighter margins from higher costs left some firms unwilling to take on new staff in April too, leaving it the worst month for job creation so far this year.