Italy manufacturing activity reaches 12-month high in April - PMI

ROME (Reuters) - Italian manufacturing expanded at its fastest rate for a year in April, a survey showed on Monday, bolstering hopes of a recovery in the euro zone's third-largest economy.

The Markit/ADACI Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) rose to 53.8 from 53.3 in March, the second-highest reading in the past four years and above the 50 mark that shows an expansion in activity.

The result, better than all the estimates in a Reuters poll of 12 analysts, was boosted by higher demand. The new orders index rose for the fourth month running, to 54.8 from 54.5 in March.

Markit said some respondents to the survey attributed strong export orders to favourable changes in the exchange rate.

The euro has weakened since the European Central Bank began its quantitative easing programme in March, and a weaker euro makes Italian products cheaper abroad. That is one of the factors supporting forecasts the Italian economy will start to grow again in 2015 after three years of recession.

- Detailed PMI data are only available under licence from Markit and customers need to apply to Markit for a licence.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Larry King)