Euro zone factories ended 2017 with record high growth:
PMI
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[January 02, 2018]
By Jonathan Cable
LONDON (Reuters) - Euro zone manufacturers
ended 2017 by ramping up activity at the fastest pace in more than two
decades, a survey showed on Tuesday, and rising demand suggests they
will start the new year on a high.
The bloc's economy outpaced its peers last year, and the European
Central Bank plans to scale back its stimulus program from this month.
IHS Markit's December final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for
the bloc was 60.6, matching an earlier preliminary reading and above
November's 60.1. That was the highest since the survey began in June
1997.
An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on
Thursday and seen as a good guide to economic health, rose to 62.2 from
November's 61.0 - its highest in over 17 years and has only been above
that once in the survey's history.

"The euro zone manufacturing boom gained further momentum in December,
rounding off the best year on record and setting the scene for a strong
start to 2018," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS
Markit.
"Forward-looking indicators bode well for the new year: new orders rose
at a near-record pace, while purchasing growth hit a new peak as firms
readied themselves for higher production.
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A worker pours liquid gold into a mould at the Austrian Gold and
Silver Separating Plant 'Oegussa' in Vienna, Austria, December 15,
2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Meanwhile, job creation was maintained at November's record pace."
Despite factories raising prices again last month, albeit at a slightly
weaker rate than in November, an index measuring new orders nudged up to
61.5 from 61.4, a level not seen since around the start of the century.
Inflation was 1.5 percent in November, below the ECB's 2 percent target
ceiling, but the central bank announced in October it will halve its
monthly asset purchases to 30 billion euros from January.
A majority of economists in a Reuters poll last year said they thought
the ECB should shut the door on the program in September, but they were
split on whether it actually would.
(Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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