TOKYO—Japan’s services sector activity shrank for the first time in five months in August as a resurgence of COVID-19 infections hurt demand, a business survey showed.
The contraction shows that a recovery of the world’s third-largest economy remains fragile at best and is worrying at a time when the global growth outlook is turning increasingly pessimistic.
The final au Jibun Bank Japan Services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to a seasonally adjusted 49.5, marking the first contraction since March.
The figure was slightly better than a 49.2 flash reading but worse than a slight expansion in activity of 50.3 in July. The 50-mark separates contraction from expansion….