The health of the Spanish manufacturing sector improved at a stronger rate during October amid faster rises in output and new orders. Firms took on extra staff as a result and continued to increase their input buying. Meanwhile, the rate of input cost inflation picked up and output prices were raised accordingly.

The headline Markit Spain Manufacturing PMI is a composite single-figure indicator of manufacturing performance. It is derived from indicators for new orders, output, employment, suppliers' delivery times and stocks of purchases. Any figure greater than 50.0 indicates overall improvement of the sector.

At 53.3 in October, the PMI was up from the reading of 52.3 in September to signal a stronger improvement in operating conditions in the Spanish manufacturing sector. The health of the sector has now strengthened in each of the past 35 months, with the latest improvement the greatest since April.