LONDON (Reuters – The euro area’s services sector, which is the largest in the bloc, took advantage last month of a more relaxed COVID-19 restriction. This helped offset a slowdown in production output growth.

S&P Global (NYSE:)’s final composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), seen as a good gauge of economic health, rose to 55.8 in April from March’s 54.9, matching a preliminary estimate. Any number above 50 is indicative of growth.

“The euro zone economy has shown surprising resilience in the face of the Ukraine-Russia war, thanks to a renewed burst of service sector activity as virus containment measures were relaxed further during April,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global.

The PMI in the service industry rose to 57.7 from 55.6 last month, marking its highest level since August. This comes just 15 months after the factory PMI fell to 55.5 in April. A sister survey revealed Monday.

The coronavirus was being contained and restrictions eased, and people were able to feel more optimistic. This sub-index of services business expectancies rose from 60.8 to 62.3.

But firms are still facing soaring costs and passed some of that burden onto consumers, so that the composite output price index leapt to 68.5 from 65.7, by far the highest reading since S&P Global began collecting the data in late 2002.

This is expected to increase bets that the European Central Bank will tighten its policy since inflation in the currency bloc was 7.5% last week (preliminary official date). That’s almost four times what the ECB targets of 2%.

Williamson explained that Williamson believes the combination of a strong growth profile and persistently high inflation signals by the surveys could lead to speculations about whether the ECB will raise interest rates at its July meeting.

A Reuters poll last month showed that the ECB will likely raise its deposit rates before the year ends.