Euro zone business growth speeds up

LONDON, Mar 10 (Reuters): Euro zone business activity accelerated more than thought last month but remained lacklustre as a pickup in services growth only partially masked a downturn in the bloc's manufacturing industry, a survey showed.

IHS Markit's Euro Zone Composite Final Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), considered a good measure of overall economic health, rose to 51.9 in February from January's 51.0.

That was higher than an earlier flash reading of 51.4 but was close to the 50 mark separating growth from contraction.

"The PMIs were slightly revised up, so that is a little bit of good news, but they are still at a level consistent with GDP growth of about 0.2 per cent, so no improvement from the second half of last year," said Andrew Kenningham at Capital Economics.

Last week's Reuters poll predicted euro zone growth of 0.3 per cent this quarter, faster than the 0.2 per cent at the end of 2018.

Among the most important economies, France's service sector activity picked up in February, Italy's expanded slightly after contracting in January, and Spain's eased a bit but less than expected.

Higher demand propelled activity in Germany's services sector to a five-month peak in February, a further sign this branch of the economy will continue to provide growth momentum as manufacturing shrinks.