The German service sector continued to expand strongly at the start of the second quarter, according to the April PMI survey data from IHS Markit. The rate of growth in total activity was littlechanged from March's recent peak, although new business expansion eased to a three-month low and the volume of outstanding work fell slightly. Consequently, companies increased their workforces at the slowest rate since January. Price pressures remained historically sharp, although the rates of inflation of input and output prices both slowed since March.

The seasonally adjusted Markit Germany Composite PMI Output Index remained well above the no-change mark of 50.0 in April, signalling a strong expansion in the combined output of the manufacturing and service sectors. At 56.7, down slightly from 57.1 in March, the Index pointed to the second-fastest rate of growth since May 2011.