By William Schomberg
LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - British business and professional
services firms have reported the biggest improvement in their
outlook in more than five years but consumer services firms -
harder hit by the coronavirus lockdown - remain downbeat, a
survey showed on Thursday.
The Confederation of British Industry said its measure of
sentiment among business and professional services firms - such
as property management and logistics firms - leapt to +23% in
the three months to February from -21% in the previous three
months, the strongest rise since August 2015.
While business volumes for those firms continued to fall
steadily, expectations for volumes in the coming quarter were
the strongest in a year.
The swift rollout of Britain's COVID-19 vaccination
programme has raised hopes of a bounce-back in the economy after
its worst slump in 300 years in 2020.
Consumer-facing services firms - including hotels and
restaurants and travel businesses - saw a deeper slump in
business in the past three months but the pace of decline was
set to ease slightly in the coming quarter, the CBI said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week he did not plan
to fully lift England's current lockdown before late June.
"While businesses will welcome the clarity on re-opening
provided by the government's road-map, restrictions are chipping
away at companies' resilience, with the majority of firms
putting their investment plans firmly on ice for the year
ahead," Ben Jones, a CBI economist, said.
The CBI survey was conducted between Jan. 29 and Feb. 15,
before Johnson's announcement of his timetable for easing
England's coronavirus restrictions.
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)