- Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit
Activity in the Euro area's services sector remained on a strong footing at the start of the final quarter of 2015, according to final surveys of purchasing managers. The bloc's services PMI maintained healthy expansion, with the final reading booking 54.1 points in October, up from 53.7 points in the preceding month. The preliminary print came in at 54.2. The Markit report also pointed out that the activity in the given sector across the Euroland edged higher mostly on account of improved levels of new business and increased employment. New orders expanded at the fastest pace since July, while the pace of job creation rose to one of its quickest during the past four-and-a-half years. At the same time, average prices charged for services in the Euro zone dropped slightly during October, while the input costs rose moderately.
Meanwhile, the ECB President Mario Draghi in his speech at the ECB Forum on Banking Supervision in Frankfurt summed up the performance and prospects of the single supervisory mechanism, which has now been running for a year. Draghi also urged policy makers to complete the integration of the European banking sector with Europe-wide mechanisms for insuring customer deposits and winding up failed banks, adding that the reforms are a prerequisite for financial stability.
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