Euro-Area Services Surge Aids Revival as Manufacturing Cools

The euro region maintained its uneven recovery this month as Germany helped drive a surge in services activity that offset a slowdown in manufacturing across the bloc.

Markit Economics said its Purchasing Managers Index of services activity in the region rose to the highest in almost three years, even as a factory gauge declined. A composite PMI was at 53.9, little changed from 54 in April and in line with the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey. Markit said the region’s economic growth may accelerate to 0.5 percent this quarter, the fastest since early 2011.