GLOBAL business activity expanded at its weakest rate in over three years in February despite firms cutting prices for the first time since September, business surveys showed late Thursday.

    The U.S. service sector contracted for the first time since October 2013, eurozone businesses had their worst month in over a year, and China’s service sector growth slowed.

    Thursday’s downbeat surveys come just days after reports showed manufacturing output across much of Asia shrank in February and faded throughout Europe and the Americas.

    JPMorgan’s Global All-Industry Output Index, produced with private data vendor Markit, slumped to 50.6 in February from January’s 52.6, its lowest reading since October 2012 when it nudged above the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction.

    “February’s PMI surveys further highlight the broad-based weakness in global growth during the opening quarter of 2016,” said David Hensley, a director at JPMorgan.

    A purchasing managers index (PMI) covering the global service industry fell to a 40-month low of 50.7 from 52.8.

    In the United States, private data vendor Markit said its service sector PMI fell to 49.7 in February from 53.2 in January and is now below the 50 level that separates growth from contraction for the first time since October 2013.

    Markit’s composite index of both manufacturing and service sector activity fell to 50.0 from 53.2 in January.

    Activity in the service sector of Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, plunged in February at the fastest pace on record, according to a survey by HSBC/Markit, as Brazil suffers from its worst economic crisis in over a century.

    The HSBC/Markit service sector PMI Brazil fell 36.9 in February from 44.4 in January.

    The deeper contraction in services, along with an accelerating decline among manufacturers, dragged Markit’s composite Brazil index to 39.0 in February from 45.1 in January.

    Eurozone businesses had their worst month in over a year in February which, coupled with further signs of deflationary pressures, is likely to solidify expectations for further monetary policy easing.

    Markit’s eurozone composite PMI, seen as a good guide to economic growth, fell to 53.0 last month from January’s 53.6, its lowest reading since the start of 2015, but was still over the 50 mark that denotes growth.

    The prospect of Britain voting to leave the European Union at a referendum in June sent shivers through the boardrooms of the country’s dominant services sector last month, sending growth to a three-year low.

    The Markit/CIPS U.K. services purchasing managers’ index slumped to 52.7 from 55.6 in January, the weakest reading since March 2013.

    British gross domestic product now looks likely to expand by just 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2016, according to Markit, a slowdown from 0.5 percent in the final three months of 2015 and its poorest performance since late 2012.

    Growth in China’s services activity slowed in February, adding to risks for policymakers in Beijing who are counting on robust growth in the sector to offset a planned overhaul of bloated State companies.(SD-Agencies)