Manufacturing activity deteriorated across much of Asia in November and while European factories reports improved, the region struggled to gather momentum.

Business surveys on Tuesday showed few signs of vigor across trade-reliant Asia, apart from Japan, with sluggish demand at home and abroad forcing manufacturers from China to Indonesia to throttle back production, cut selling prices and shed more jobs.

Euro zone manufacturing growth picked up to a 19-month high in November but the pace was still relatively modest and with firms cutting prices for a third month, expectations for further easing from the European Central Bank on Thursday will solidify.

"The deal has been sealed for the ECB, markets have moved after the very strong hints and one data point wouldn't change its mind at this stage," said Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics. "These particular data anyway aren't all that encouraging. There is just no real inflationary pressure."

As part of its battle to boost inflation - nowhere near the Bank's 2 percent target ceiling at just 0.1 percent - the central bank has been buying 60 billion euros ($63.55 billion) a month of mostly government bonds since March.

Official data showed euro zone unemployment fell slightly more than expected in October and Markit's final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 52.8 in November, above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction but not vigorous given the amount of stimulus.

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Reuters