The euro zone manufacturing recovery strengthened last month due to the relaxed coronavirus restrictions, data showed on Wednesday.

IHS Markit's final Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) surged to 53.7 in September from August's 51.7, the highest level since August 2018. Anything above 50 indicates growth.

An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on Monday and seen as a good guide to economic health, bounced to 57.1 from 55.6, above the 56.8 flash estimate and its highest since February 2018.

The composite PMI also includes a measure of activity in the bloc's dominant services industry.

"The euro zone's manufacturing recovery gained further momentum in September, rounding off the largest quarterly rise in production since the opening months of 2018," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.

"The recovery would have been far more modest without Germany, however, where output has surged especially sharply to account for around half of the region's overall expansion in September."

Earlier figures showed factory output in Germany, Europe's largest economy, was booming - in contrast to modest production growth in France and Spain and slightly slower growth in Italy.

Germany, the European Union's biggest economic power, took over the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc from July 1. The German economy contracted by 2.2 percent in the first quarter of the year and shrank by a record 10.1 percent in the second quarter. 

The country in June launched a $146 billion stimulus package to save the economy hit by the pandemic.

(With input from Reuters)