Spanish Services at Seven-Year High as Euro-Area Index Increases

Service industries in Spain and Ireland showed the fastest growth since before the financial crisis while Italy’s also picked up, helping to push a gauge for the euro area as a whole to the highest in almost three years.

A Purchasing Managers’ Index for services in the region rose to 53.1 last month from 52.2 in March, Markit Economics said in a statement today. That matched a preliminary reading published April 23 and was the highest since June 2011. A composite index for both services and manufacturing climbed to 54 from 53.1 in March.