- Euro-area Manufacturing Remains Steady
The strong economic momentum in the Euro-area continued into the final quarter of the year.
The Purchasing Managers Index of the region grew at 58.6 in October, according to the IHS Market report released on Tuesday. Higher than the 58.1 recorded in September and 57.9 projected by analysts. The highest in over six years.
Despite the decline, job creation in the manufacturing sector rose to the highest level since 1997. Suggesting that growing demand is supporting new job creation and factory output.
The Euro-area recovery is gathering pace ahead of the European Central Bank meeting this week. The central bank is expected to announce gradual reduction of its quantitative easing from 60 billion euro to about 30 billion euro.
“The euro-zone economy has had a good year so far, and the initial signs are that this has continued at the start of the final quarter of 2017,” said Andrew Harker, associate director at IHS Markit. Scaling back bond purchases is “a move that would appear to be justified based on this latest set of PMI data.”
Inflation rate remained steady in September, stood at 1.5 percent. Thanks to the surge in selling prices in the month.
A gauge for the services sector showed the sector declined from 55.8 to 54.9.
The Euro gained 0.8 against the US dollar to $1.1755 after the report was released.
