Markit's Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) posted 60.1 points in November this year, up from October’s 58.5 points and rising from 60 points in the earlier flash estimate.
The upturn in the euro area manufacturing sector continued to surge forward in November. Strong accelerated expansions in production and new orders, aided by series-record growth in new export business, underpinned the steepest increase in employment since the survey began in June 1997.
November saw rates of expansion in production and new orders rise to the highest since February 2011 and April 2000 respectively. Companies reported strong inflows of new work received from both domestic and non-domestic clients.
Strong new order inflows led to the steepest accumulation of backlogs of work since data on outstanding business were first collected in November 2002.
Price pressures intensified in November. Input costs rose at the quickest pace in six-and-a-half years, while output charges increased to the greatest extent since June 2011. Increased input costs reflected a combination of rising commodity prices and a sellers’ market developing for certain inputs.
“November’s surveys produced a clean sheet of improved PMI readings for all countries, resulting in the best performance for eurozone manufacturing since the height of the dot-com boom over 17 years ago. There’s only been one month (April 2000) in the entire 20-year history of the survey with a higher PMI reading,” stated Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.