Business activity rose for the third straight month across the German private sector in August, with the pace of growth ticking up to the quickest since March but remaining only modest, according to the latest ‘flash’ HCOB PMI® survey data. The upturn in output continued to be led by the manufacturing sector, which recorded its strongest increase in production for almost threeand-a-half years. By contrast, there was a further modest fall in employment amid a lack pressure on capacity, and a slight softening of firms’ growth expectations. Rates of input cost and output price inflation meanwhile ticked up from the ... (full story)