Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, stated that the service economy in the USA is booming and its output is growing at the fastest rate since the economy reopened from the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021. The expansion in the service sector is helping to drive overall economic growth to its fastest level in nearly three years. However, the situation in manufacturing is different, with output sharply declining and the pace of decline accelerating, partly due to weak export demand. Encouragingly, confidence in the outlook for the next 12 months has risen to its highest level in two and a half years, suggesting that strong economic growth will continue into the new year, and this growth may be more widespread across industries. However, some of the buoyant sentiments observed in manufacturing post-election have been tempered by concerns over tariffs and the potential impact of rising costs of imported materials on inflation.