PRICE discounting drove growth in all of the eurozone’s major economies in March, helping business activity increase at its fastest rate for nearly a year, a survey showed Tuesday.

    New orders came in at their fastest rate since May 2011 and the survey found that companies have now been cutting prices for three years, although not as sharply in March as before.

    Nevertheless, the Markit survey provided some welcome news for the European Central Bank (ECB) just weeks after it embarked on 1-trillion-euro (US$1.3 trillion) asset-purchase program.

    The private sector in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, grew at its fastest pace in eight months and although it also increased in France, the pace of expansion slowed.

    Italy’s service industry returned to growth, fuelling hopes of an economic recovery there after years of on-off recession, and Spain’s expanded at its fastest pace since August.

    “France is lagging behind a little bit but the others are doing pretty well. It just shows that quantitative easing was working even before the ECB bought a single bond,” Soctiabank’s Alan Clarke said.

    Official data showed eurozone consumer prices fell again in March as expected but that the decline was the smallest this year. Industrial producer prices declined by less than expected in February from a year earlier.

    “Encouragingly for the ECB, there was further evidence in the services survey that deflationary tendencies are easing in the eurozone,” IHS Global Insight’s Howard Archer said.

    Markit’s final March Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), seen as a good indicator of growth, stood at 54, a touch below the preliminary estimate of 54.1 but well ahead of February’s 53.3. A reading above 50 implies growth.

    The financial information firm said the PMIs pointed to first quarter growth of 0.3 percent, slightly less than the 0.4 percent predicted in a poll last month. (SD-Agencies)