October saw a slight increase in the level of business activity across Italy's services economy. Companies in the sector also took on additional staff amid stronger growth in incoming new work and higher optimism towards the year-ahead outlook for business activity, although the rate of job creation was subdued overall. Meanwhile, average prices charged by services firms continued to fall as input cost inflation subsided to the weakest for seven months.

The headline Markit Business Activity Index - which is based on a single question asking respondents to report on the actual change in business activity at their companies compared to one month ago - was at 51.0 in October, up marginally from September's 50.7. That pointed to the continuation of modest growth in business activity, the level of which has now increased for five months in a row