West Midlands companies benefited from positive demand trends in May and responded to this by creating more jobs and lifting business activity, according to newly published research.
Inflation data also displayed an encouraging picture as the weakest increase in input costs for two-and-a-half years restricted the rate at which output charges were raised.
The NatWest PMI report, a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region's manufacturing and service sectors, was up from 52.8 in April to 54.2, signalling the strongest expansion since April 2022.
