Euro zone services growth unexpectedly powered ahead in June, while manufacturing expansion also gathered pace.
The RBS/NTC economics flash Purchasing Manager Index reports today also showed the strongest services jobs growth in a year and the best for manufacturers in six-and-a-half years in an economy growing at or above capacity that could spawn future inflation.
The flash Euro zone services PMI for June rose to 58.3 from a final 57.3 in May, reaching its highest in a year and confounding analysts' expectations for it to hold steady. The 50 mark is the dividing line between growth and contraction.
The flash manufacturing PMI rose for the first time in four months to 55.4 in June from 55.0 and also better than the dip to 54.9 economists had expected, giving little reason to believe a slowdown is at hand.
The composite PMI, which rose to 57.7 from 56.8, suggested that the 13-member bloc grew at a breezy 0.7 per cent pace in the second quarter despite a series of European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate rises to 4 per cent.
With incoming new business for the vast services sector also clocking its best rate since the World Cup last summer, it is likely to stoke further concern that the ECB has more than one rate rise left in store.