Eurozone shopping spree points to beginning of recovery

Details of rises in retail sales and services sector output come on eve of ECB's announcement of its bond-buying programme

Shoppers across the eurozone went on a new year spending spree in January, raising hopes that the 19-member single currency area is bouncing back from the brink of a deflationary downturn.

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), announced in January he would start a a60bn ($43bn)-a-month programme of quantitative easing in a bid to prevent the eurozone sliding into deflation, with the money due to start flowing this month.