Business activity in Germany's service sector grew at the slowest rate for 19 months in April, the pace of expansion pulling back further from a near seven-year high at the beginning of the year. Service sector new orders showed the weakest rise since July last year, which contributed to a softening of firms' optimism towards the outlook. There was better news on the employment front however, with the pace of job creation ticking up to a three-month high.

The seasonally adjusted final IHS Markit Germany Services PMI Business Activity Index registered 53.0 in April, down from 53.9 in March (and a preliminary 'flash' estimate of 54.1) and its lowest since September 2016.