Eurozone data to show improving manufacturing, services activity

Eurozone indicators to be released in the coming week are expected to confirm recent signals of a recovery in the manufacturing industry and mild improvements in the services sector, economists said.
The eurozone purchasing managers' index report for the manufacturing sector is due out on Monday, followed by the services PMI on Wednesday.
"The broad improvement in national business surveys leaves no doubt that the PMI will rebound sharply in September," economists from US investment bank Goldman Sachs said.
They added: "We expect the manufacturing PMI to rise from 50.4 to 52.5. In the services sector, some improvement should also be recorded, with the index rising from 53.3 to 54.0."
Commenting on upbeat business confidence reports from Germany and Italy, economists from Credit Suisse First Boston believed that "a similar upwards movement in the manufacturing PMI would give a further confirmation that economic momentum is again picking up in the euro area".
They cautioned however that the indicator "will still remain at relatively low levels, consistent with only moderate industrial production growth".
On the services PMI data, they expected "a slight rise in September" in line with the pick-up in a number of euro area business surveys this month.
The index was expected to remain within the narrow range witnessed in the past year.
Economists at Royal Bank of Scotland also noted the better-than-expected business confidence reports from Germany and Italy.
The manufacturing index is expected "to echo this pattern with an overall rise in the euro area index to 50.8", but they were less optimistic for the services sector, noting the impact of rising oil prices on corporate profit margins.
"This is expected to be further evident this month and we forecast the PMI to have slipped to 53.0," they said.
Analysts at Bank of America forecast "a slight improvement in the manufacturing PMI", but no major change in the services report.
The other key releases for the week - German manufacturing orders on Thursday and German industrial output on Friday - are expected to show a reversal of recent sharp increases.