Eurozone services sector surges as Germany, Italy and Spain impress
The eurozone services sector grew faster than expected last month as German firms performed more strongly than initially estimated, a survey showed on Monday.
January's purchasing managers' index rose to 58.0 from the 57.6 initial 'flash' estimate, IHS Markit revealed.
Including the manufacturing and construction sectors, this lifted the composite euro area index to 58.8 from the 58.6 reading given from the flash estimates.
A better than expected services reading from Germany of 57.3 versus the 57.0 offset marginal France's PMI coming out at a lower 59.2 than the 59.3 initially indicated.
Spain's PMI shot up to 56.9 from 54.6 previously and well above the 55.0 consensus estimate, while Italy's reading of 57.7 was also markedly ahead of the 55.4 from December and the 56.0 estimate.
With a PMI reading over 50 indicating growth, the surveys suggest no little optimism in continental Europe's main economies.
"Italy’s PMIs have been the stand-out positive surprise in the January numbers, hinting at a surging start to 2018," said Pantheon Macroeconomics.
"Overall, growth in EZ services improved to a ten-year high, on par with the impressive upturn in manufacturing. Just as in the industrial sector, work backlogs in services are rising even as firms scramble to take on workers to meet rising demand. As a result, input and output price inflation also are rising."