Services at sound levels

Service industry activity last month was a silver lining, given the country's cloudy economic prospects.

While both the official and HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index readings for manufacturing signaled lackluster activity in July, the readings painted a brighter picture for the services sector.

The HSBC PMI for the services industry, released on Monday, was 51.3 in July, unchanged from June and slightly higher than the 20-month low of 51.1 in April.