UK services sector remains flat The UK's large services sector barely grew last month, according to a survey, intensifying expectations the Bank of England will restart quantitative easing this week to try to inject life into the economy. The Markit purchasing managers" index survey of services companies - which together account for more than three-quarters of the UK's economic output - fell from 53.3 in May to 51.3 in June, a bigger decline than economists had expected. Markit said the index level implied activity in the sector was still growing in June but at the slowest pace for eight months. Vicky Redwood, an economist at Capital Economics, said the survey "seals the deal for more QE tomorrow." The BoE's monetary policy committee is widely expected to vote on Thursday for another round of gilt purchases, also known as QE, as concerns mount about the spillover effects of the eurozone crisis. The UK fell into a double-dip recession in the first quarter of the year, though the large and generally stable services sector grew 0.2 per cent, ensuring the downturn was not deeper. While the Queen's jubilee bank holiday could have affected the PMI survey by reducing the number of working days in June, new business also slowed and the "business expectations" index dropped to a six-month low, suggesting underlying conditions were also worsening. "The European sovereign debt crisis was reportedly a factor weighing on sentiment, creating an air of uncertainty that led to business plans being put on hold," Markit said. Companies were also cutting their prices to try and maintain sales volumes, according to the survey, a positive signal for inflationary pressures but a negative signal about the state of demand. Separate data from the BoE on housing equity withdrawal in the first quarter showed that people continued to put more money into the housing market through deposits or mortgage repayments than they took out of it. The BoE said the fall in housing equity withdrawal since the financial crisis was likely to reflect a fall in the number of housing transactions, with little sign that households in aggregate were making an active effort to pay down debt more quickly than in the past.