Mubasher: US manufacturing business activity remained brisk in August, while prices continued to increase, New York Federal Reserve Bank’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey showed on Wednesday.

The Empire State manufacturing index, gauging overall general business conditions, rose to 25.6 in August, indicating robust growth.

Meanwhile, analysts polled by Econoday had expected the index to come in at 20.

The paid price index rose to 45.2 points this month, suggesting ongoing input cost pressures, whereas the index for the prices of received items declined by 2.2 points to 20.

The index gauging the inflows of new orders fell 1.1 points to 17.1 in August, while shipments index climbed 11.1 to 25.7 points.

“Firms remained moderately optimistic about the six-month outlook, though less so than earlier this year,” according to the federal bank’s survey data.

Business optimism index for future conditions jumped 4 points to 34.8 in August.

By 1:21 pm GMT, the EUR/USD pair fell 0.27% to $1.1313.