According to the report from IHS Markit, stronger growth in Germany’s service sector drove an increase in overall business activity across the eurozone’s largest member state in February. However, the country’s outwardly-focussed manufacturing sector slipped further into contraction as export orders fell to the greatest extent for over six years. Elsewhere, employment growth remained solid midway through the opening quarter of the year, while there was a broad-based softening of inflationary pressures.

The IHS Markit Flash Germany Composite Output Index registered a reading of 52.7 in February, up from 52.1 in January and its highest since last October. Nevertheless, the index continued to point to one of the slowest rates of growth seen over the past five-and-a-half years.

Whereas the pace of expansion in service sector business activity accelerated to the quickest in five months, manufacturing output slipped into contraction, falling for the first time since April 2013 and at the quickest rate in over six years.

Flash Manufacturing PMI dropped to a 74-month low of 47.6 in February from 49.7 in January, and Flash Services PMI rose to 55.1 from 53.0 in January, and reached 5-month high.