And if you're still not convinced, Samuel Tombs has a graph to prove it...

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While the rise in August services PMI may have been much better than forecast, it's not time to crack out the champagne and party poppers yet, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics. 

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at the firm, whose forecasts tend to be more negative than many of its rivals, says the UK is "still on course for a sharp slowdown in Q3".

"The business activity index points to three-month-on-three-month growth in services output picking up to a meagre 0.2% or so in August, from -0.5% in July. Meanwhile, the subdued reading of the new business index, 52.7, signals that the recovery likely won’t gain further momentum over the coming months," he adds.

Scott Bowman, UK economist at Capital Economics, has sounded a note of caution over the PMI data.

"Just as the July survey probably overstated the economy’s underlying weakness, the August survey probably overstates its subsequent recovery," he says.

"We think an average of the July and August surveys paints a more accurate picture of the economy post-Brexit."

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“It remains too early to say whether August’s upturn is a dead cat bounce or the start of a sustained post-shock recovery, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to indicate that the initial shock of the June vote has begun to dissipate. Many companies are seeing business return to normal either simply by customer confidence rising or a stoic determination to “Buck Brexit” and carry on regardless. 

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Analysts were expecting the services PMI to merely edge back into positive territory with most forecasting 50, so 52.9 is substantially better than anyone hoped and will boost confidence that the UK economy is beginning to settle down after the shock Brexit vote in June. 

The PMI report is seen as one of the most reliable indicators on the economy. Its index is based on responses from more than 650 services companies, from sectors including transport, business services, computing and restaurants. 

Each month it asks them: "Is the level of business activity at your company higher, the same or lower than one month ago?"

The services sector accounts for the vast bulk of UK economic activity.  

The pound has risen in response to the positive PMI data. It's up 0.6% against the dollar to $1.34.

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The much better-than expected rise in August services PMI marks a new record: the biggest month--on-month rise in the survey's 20-year history.

"Whether this steadiness continues will largely depend on the sector’s reaction to the UK Government’s approach to the Brexit negotiations as the sector keeps one eye on business as usual and one eye on possible obstacles ahead," cautions David Noble, group chief executive officer at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply.

Markit's chief economist tweets:

The UK service sector returned to growth in August, according to PMI survey data from IHS Markit and CIPS. The index rebounded to 52.9 in August, from 47.4 in July. A reading above 50 indicates growth.

The pound is hovering near a one-month high ahead of services data due out at 9.30am, which analysts are expecting to show the economy is stabilising after June's shock Brexit vote. 

It's currently up 0.2% against the dollar at $1.3313, and has risen consecutively for the past three weeks, marking its best run since April, and well above its 30-year low of $1.2798 in the aftermath of the EU vote.

Against the euro, however it's down 0.09% at €1.19050.

"Today's PMIs will probably have to bounce back above 50 to convince the market that Brexit fears are well and truly over for now, at least, and thereby boost the pound," says Marshall Gittler, head of investment research at FXPrimus.

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Leave supporter Wetherspoons founder Tim Martin and Remain backer Nicola Horlick, chief executive of crowd-funding service Money & Co, have gone head to head in the Today studio over Brexit. 

Mr Martin says he's still confident that the UK will do well. 

"Europe is a failing institution you can see that in Greece and Portugal. We've got to trade with Europe, be friends with Europe, but make our own laws.

"The main thing is the big picture: we'll do well."

But Ms Horlick disputes this saying it's far too soon to tell. 

"If we are leaving the single market there will be damage to our economy. 

"Maybe we won't be the fifth largest economy we'll be the 8th, but in my view that will be very, very sad," she says.

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Nigel Wilson has also urged the government to abandon its three flagship infrastructure projects – Heathrow, Hinkley Point and HS2. Mr Wilson told the Today programme the projects were either poor value for money or too difficult to implement. Instead of the three “H”s, Theresa May should embrace the three “G”s – Gatwick, green energy, and the creation of a greater northern powerhouse through improved transport links between the region’s cities.

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Nigel Wilson, the chief executive of FTSE 100 insurer Legal & General, said the City had made the wrong call in the wake of the Brexit vote. “Most of those in the City were remainers,” he told the Today programme, “so it was natural that they reacted the way they did.”  

Markets and sterling plunged the day after the vote. Shares have since recovered, and the pound has stabilised.

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Japanese ambassador to the UK Koji Tsuruoka is defending the country's stance on Brexit after the country's government warned its firms could move their European head offices out of Britain.

The strongly worded report from Japan's foreign ministry, external, released yesterday, says the firms might want to move "if EU laws cease to be applicable in the UK".

He says the impact of Brexit is "an open question yet to be answered" and insists the government has not yet made a decision to tell firms to shift their headquarters.

"The problem that we will have to confront is what is the market that could be accessed for production out of the UK. If there are conditions that block Japanese cars being exported to continental Europe, such as export tariffs, that will of course affect the competitive nature of the pricing of cars. 

"But that can also be offset by the currency effect. There are many variables," he tells Today.

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Prime Minister Theresa May is in China for the G20 Summit, where she's using meetings with other world leaders to scope out post-Brexit trade deals. 

Mrs May's just met with Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull near Hangzhou's West Lake - the site of last night's opulent G20 ceremony - and the two leaders confirmed they discussed what free trade agreements may look like.

Australia would be "one of the first countries we will be looking to," Mrs May said.

She's also met with President Obama and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, and will be sitting down with Chinese President Xi Jinping later today.

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Britain's minister in charge of exiting the European Union will set out more detail on the government's plans for Brexit in parliament later today. 

Since the EU referendum on 23 June, the government has given little away about its plans. 

"This is an historic and positive moment for our nation. Brexit isn't about making the best of a bad job. It is about seizing the huge and exciting opportunities that will flow from a new place for Britain in the world," Brexit minister David Davis said in a statement ahead of his address to parliament. 

It comes amid international unease at the G20 Summit about the UK's decision to leave the EU. 

Japan released a strongly-worded report warning the country's firms could move their headquarters out of Britain as a result of Brexit, while President Obama repeated his belief that the vote would damage the UK's economy.

Andreas Illmer
Business reporter in Singapore

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Away from Brexit, the embattled South Korean shipping giant Hanjin is launching legal action around the globe to protect its fleet from being seized by creditors. 

The company had filed for receivership in Seoul last week and for bankruptcy protection in the US on Friday. 

It plans to do the same in more than 40 countries worldwide now and it's quite a pressing affair: currently, the ships are stranded at sea and can't go into ports as they most likely would be held and seized by creditors. 

Hanjin's collapse has been the biggest bankruptcy in the shipping industry and has sent shock-waves through the sector. 

Prices for getting your cargo from Asia to the US for instance have already skyrocketed since last week. 

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Saker Nusseibeh, chief executive of Hermes Fund Managers, says the City of London has a patriotic duty to defend the interests of the UK during negotiations over the powers of post Brexit Britain. 

But he warns that ultimately the UK will have to accept the rules of any new trading agreement

"It is what it is. We've lost the power to input into those rules. We just have to obey them," he says.