Euro zone recovery unexpectedly gathering pace in April

The euro zone economic recovery has unexpectedly gathered pace this month as the bloc’s dominant services industry saw already buoyant demand rise, more than offsetting a deepening downturn in manufacturing, surveys showed.

HCOB’s flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, jumped to an 11-month high of 54.4 in April from March’s 53.7, data showed on Friday.

That was well above the 50 mark separating growth from contraction and matched the highest forecast in a Reuters poll which had predicted no change from March.

“The HCOB Purchasing Managers’ Indices for the euro zone show a very friendly overall picture of an economy that continues to recover,” Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.

“However, a closer look reveals that growth is very unevenly distributed. For example, the gap between the partly booming services sector on the one hand and the weakening manufacturing sector on the other has widened further.”

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