The U.K. service sector continued to expand for a 14th month in February, supported by another marked increase in new business, data from Markit Economics showed Wednesday. The headline Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply/Markit Business Activity Index fell marginally to 58.2 in February from 58.3 in January. That was the lowest reading since last June, but indicative of a sharp rise in activity on a monthly basis. The score was forecast to fall to 58. Growth has been recorded for 14 months and the latest increase in output was supported by incoming new business. The survey suggests that widespread flooding had little impact on economic activity. As incoming new work continued to rise at a marked pace, capacity remained under pressure. Moreover, backlogs of work accumulated notably. Staff were also recruited in line with ongoing confidence towards future activity. Finally, price pressures were relatively contained in February. Although input and output prices continued to increase, the former was the lowest for six months and the latter was the weakest since last September. The economic recovery still has considerable momentum, but is not prompting inflationary pressures to build, Samuel Tombs, a UK economist at Capital Economics, said. Data from the British Retail Consortium earlier today showed that shop price deflation was the fastest on record in February. The shop price index dropped 1.4 percent. Positive data is adding conviction to the growing consensus that that the economy is set for its best year of growth since 2007, with the rate easily surpassing the 1.8 percent expansion seen last year, said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. The Purchasing Managers' survey conducted among manufacturers revealed expansion continuing for eleventh month in February. Likewise, the construction sector also expanded sharply, but the pace of expansion moderated from January's 77-month high. The Bank of England's monetary policy meeting is likely to pass without events on Thursday as policymakers pledged a low interest rate regime. Economists widely expect the bank to keep its bank rate at 0.50 percent and quantitative easing at GBP 375 billion.