Eurozone composite PMI confirmed at three-month high in February
By Benjamin Chiou
Date: Wednesday 04 Mar 2026
(Sharecast News) - Final estimates for private-sector activity across the eurozone confirmed an acceleration in growth in February, as output across both the services and manufacturing sectors rose at quicker rates.
The eurozone composite purchasing managers' index, published by Hamburg Commercial Bank and S&P Global, rose to 51.9 last month, in line with the preliminary estimate released two weeks ago.
That was up from 51.3 in January and the highest rate of growth - measured by any figure above 50 - in three months, since the PMI hit a 30-month high of 52.8 in November.
This was also the 14th straight month of above-50 readings for the composite PMI, helped by growth hitting a four-month high in Germany, and solid expansions in Ireland and Italy.
Driving the acceleration across the single-currency region was a quicker rise in new orders, as the demand for eurozone goods and services was recorded - mainly a result of growing domestic order books rather than export business.
Meanwhile, the outlook for the next 12 months was "strongly optimistic", the survey said, with sentiment levels across the board hitting their highest since May 2024, while manufacturing confidence jumped to a four-year high.
Overall growth, however, was still subdued, according to HCOB's chief economist Cyrus de la Rubia, "reflected, among other things, in the fact that companies have hardly hired any new staff on balance in the past two months".
"For the European Central Bank (ECB), these data are certainly one more reason why it is unlikely to plan any further interest rate cuts for the time being. Costs faced by the service sector rose at a high rate once again in February. Higher wages, but also rising energy and transport costs, are cited as reasons for this," de la Rubia said.
"From the ECB's perspective, the decline in inflationary pressure on sales prices is a positive development, but no clear trend has emerged in recent months."
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