Manufacturing activity in the euro zone grew slightly faster than previously thought last month but Spain continued to lag far behind the bloc's other big three economies, a new survey shows.
The Markit Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for February jumped to 54.2 from 52.4 in January, nudging up from a flash estimate of 54.1 released late last month.
This is the fifth consecutive month the index has been above the 50.0 mark that divides growth from contraction and is its highest reading since August 2007. The output index notched up a near three-year high, rising to 57.0 from January's 56.0.
Earlier data from Germany, the 16-nation bloc's biggest economy, showed activity there expanded at its fastest pace in 32 months while in Italy the PMI was just shy of January's 28-month high. The France PMI slipped to 54.9.
In Spain, manufacturing activity contracted for the 27th month, although was closer to stabilising. The Spanish PMI jumped to 49.1 from January's 45.3.
"Worrying national disparities persist," said Chris Williamson at data provider Markit.
The euro zone economy grew 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, emerging from five consecutive quarters of contraction, its worst post-war recession.
It grew by 0.1 per cent in the final three months of last year and economists polled by Reuters predict modest growth over the coming year.
The European Central Bank has held interest rates at a record low of 1 per cent since last May and a Reuters poll of 87 economists taken last week predicted it will not raise them until the fourth quarter.
The Markit report showed new export orders grew at the fastest rate in three years, with the index jumping to 56.0 last month from January's 53.8, helped by a tumbling euro and companies restocking warehouses.
The euro has fallen to nine-month lows in recent days, battered down by worries over heavily indebted smaller euro zone countries such as Greece and Portugal.
Reuters