A disappointing summer appears to have dampened the pace of expansion in the Scottish economy, a closely watched report has found.
The Bank of Scotland PMI said all of its main indicators in August were behind the levels reported in July.
Even the travel, tourism and leisure sector saw a contraction last month in spite of it being the peak Edinburgh festivals season.
In recent weeks stock market listed consumer facing businesses from Costa Coffee owner Whitbread to five-a-side football firm Goals Soccer Centres have blamed poor weather and the strength of the pound persuading people to holiday overseas for soft trading across the summer.
Those factors may also have been at play in Scotland as although business and financial services expanded the seasonally adjusted headline PMI fell to 50.8 last month.
The single figure measure of the month-on-month change in combined manufacturing and services output, where a number greater than 50 signals expansion, was down from the 52.2 reported in July.
It was the lowest reading since the 50.7 recorded in April and also lagged far behind the 55.1 for the whole of the UK in August.
Recruiting by services firms kept the overall employment index in expansion territory at 50.5 with some companies also taking on graduate trainees.
Levels of new business across the economy expanded with the survey recording a reading of 51.4.
But that was lower than the 55.8 across the UK and the lowest in Scotland since April.
In services business activity expanded for the fifth month in a row but the 50.8 was the lowest level seen in that sequence.
The report said: “Panellists cited investment in marketing campaigns and higher orders as the main factors behind greater activity.”
The new business reading of 51.6 in services had slowed from the 51.9 in July and fell below the long-term average.
While the manufacturing output in the PMI was still in positive territory it was far below the levels reported in July.
That industry managed to keep employment in positive territory in spite of slower growth in new orders and output.
New export orders continued the trend seen for much of this year and contracted again with companies clearly feeling the effect of the strength of the pound.
Volumes of unfinished orders also fell again in August, extending the current sequence to 15 months.
Donald MacRae, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, said: “August’s PMI was 50.8 recording a fall in the month but still signalling growth.
“Output and employment grew in all sectors but at modest rates. New business grew slowly in both manufacturing and services while new export orders fell for the seventh successive month.
“The private sector continues to recover from the slowdown at the start of the year but the Scottish economy will have to rely on the Government sector to raise growth to trend levels in the third quarter of this year.“
Separately, BDO’s Output Index suggested businesses expect economic growth to continue through 2015.
Respondents cited consumer spending, rising wages and low inflation as among the factors driving growth.
However the accountancy firm’s Optimism Index fell for a fifth consecutive month with manufacturers particularly despondent.
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