Eurozone business activity still on the upswing, key index shows

Business activity in the eurozone expanded in Marchfor the ninth month in a row, a key indicator showed Monday, addingto hopes that the currency bloc is on the road to economic recovery, dpa reported.The London-based research group Markit said its closely watchedPurchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the region's manufacturing andservice sectors clocked 53.2 - just slightly below the 32-month highof 53.3 that it had hit a month earlier.Particularly encouraging was the fact that France, the eurozone'ssecond-largest economy, saw growth return to its output and new orders, the research group said.Germany, the region's economic powerhouse, saw its output grow lessthan before, but its companies are expected to see "further robustgrowth in the coming months," according to Markit.The Markit index is based on a survey of about 5,000 companies in the18-country eurozone.