Eurozone businesses start 2018 on decade high as work floods in

London

EUROZONE businesses kicked off 2018 in much better shape than anyone polled by Reuters expected, ramping up activity at the fastest rate since the middle of 2006, a survey showed on Wednesday.

The upturn was driven by a strong performance in the bloc's dominant service industry, where new business flooded in at a rate not seen in over a decade. That will cheer the European Central Bank as it moves towards tighter monetary policy.

IHS Markit's composite flash Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the eurozone jumped to 58.6 this month, its highest since June 2006 and confounding the median forecast in a Reuters…