Euro zone business surge accelerates but stays poor in February

In February, euro zone business activity speeded up more than anticipated, although was still lackluster due to the fact that a pickup in services surge only partially offset a downturn in the EU’s manufacturing industry. That’s why a poll revealed on Tuesday.

The outcomes showed up just two days before ECB representatives uncovered their latest monetary policy.

Having drawn a line under their 2.6 trillion euro stimulus initiative at the turn of 2019, the ECB isn’t believed to change policy on Thursday. However, the major bank is expected to relaunch its long-term loan offerings soon.

A common gauge of overall economic health, IHS Markit's Euro Zone Composite Final Purchasing Managers' Index tacked on by to 51.9 this month from January's outcome of 51.0.

It turned out to be higher than the previous outcome of 51.4, although close to the 50 mark, which separates contraction from surge.

The previous week’s Reuters survey forecast euro zone surge of 0.3% this quarter, which is faster than the 0.2% at the end of the previous year.

In addition to this, in February, France's service sector activity managed to pick up. In Italy, this sector expanded a bit having contracted in January. As for Spain’s service sector, it moderately eased, although less than anticipated.

Higher demand powered activity in the German services sector to a five-month peak this month. It appears to be a further indication that this sector of the German economy will keep providing surge momentum because manufacturing goes down.

As for euro zone manufacturing activity, it started reversing for the first time for more than five years in January. However, the PMI that covers the EU’s dominant services industry rebounded to 52.8 from January's reading of 51.2.