Services PMI higher than expected but confidence lowest since Aug 20

Highlights from the press release:

• "The continued expansion of Spain’s service sector was signalled by July’s survey as firms recorded another solid increase in activity and a modest rise in new business. Additional staff were again taken on, which enabled companies to broadly keep on top of overall workloads."
• "Whilst firms indicated that underlying sales remained positive, a slump in new business from abroad – there was some indication that tourism numbers remain lower-than-usual – and growing client hesitancy in committing to new work weighed on growth."
• "Firms signalled that upward price pressures, and a generally unstable global economic and political environment was weighing on the outlook. Fears of recession in the second half-of-the year were increasingly common. The net result was a slump in confidence to its lowest since August 2020. "