Prior 52.4Final Composite PMI 53.2 vs 53.1 prelimPrior 52.1Key findings:Employment falls again despite positive business expectationsComment:Commenting on the PMI data, Cyrus de la Rubia, Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said:“This is pretty robust growth from the service sector in February. The prospects for continued expansion are good, as newbusiness grew more strongly than in the previous month, supported by large orders and a noticeable increase in new workfrom abroad. The order backlog, which had been declining in the previous three months, also rose in February. However,companies are trying to cope with the improved business situation with fewer employees. Perhaps companies need a littlemore certainty before they start hiring again.“Costs in the service sector continue to rise quite rapidly. In addition to higher wages, companies cite increased energy andtransport costs as the reason for this. However, they were only able to pass on a smaller portion of these cost increases totheir customers. In view of the increase in business activity, however, we would not derive a trend from this pressure onmargins, especially as optimism about future business activity remains at a high level and has only fallen slightly.“The Composite PMI indicates that economic growth in the first quarter of the new year could remain at the previousquarter's level of 0.3%. Another positive factor is that both the service sector and the manufacturing sector, which had beena drag on growth for a long time, are expanding, and the order situation has improved in both sectors. The recovery couldthus stabilize.” This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.