The service economy lost a little of its impetus last month and confidence, as measured by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply, ebbed to its lowest level since June, 2003.
Yet this business expectations index still stood at at an overwhelmingly optimistic 73.6 on a scale where anything over 50 indicates expansion.
More than half the companies surveyed by CIPS and NTC research said they were looking for an improvement over the coming 12 months, while only six per cent feared a fall.
In that context, slight declines in the rate of growth in most aspects of service activity is highly unlikely to sway members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee when they meet next week to decide whether to move interest rates.
CIPS' headline index of overall service business activity fell to 55.1 last month from 55.9 in January.
The slowdown in overall activity arose mainly from weaker growth in new business.
Despite this easier trend private sector service employers continued to expand their workforces, although an index number of 50.5 for employment was only marginally positive and the lowest since August, 2003.
The input price index, measuring companies' costs, eased back to 58.6 in February from 58.9 January. The sharpest rise in input costs was reported by hotels and restaurants.
But the output index for prices charged to customers rose appreciably to 53.2 from 52.0 in January, suggesting that New Year price lists imposed in January have taken effect.
