New data on the performance of both the manufacturing and services sectors of the Eurozone published by Markit Economics this morning have expansion in both areas despite service PMIs missing estimates.
Overall performance in the Manufacturing sector is up with the Markit Manufacturing PMI rising to 52.6, beating estimates. The lastest instalment of data has highlighted that the manufacturing sector of the European Monetary Union is expanding more than economists first thought.
The services sector underperformed manufactruing as the Marit PMI for Services missed estimates and came in at 52.4. Although lower than estimates it still pointed towards an overall expansion in services throughout the Eruozone.
The composite PMI, including manufacturing and services both, is down 0.3 points to the previous month, standing at 52.8, missing estimates of 53.1 figure. This number fits into this year’s trend of expansion with small variations in activity and no recorded contraction in the past 18 months. This morning’s release suggests a long term stable expansion of both services and manufacturing sectors, god news for the Euro which rallied against the Dollar.
Numbers have also been published for Eurozone members Germany and France individually.
Germany
Germany’s Markit Manufacturing PMI rose from 52.1 to 54.4 which is 2.5 points higher than the estimated number and presents a record high for the index in the past 18 months.
Germany’s Services sector has not done quite as well as expected with a slightly lower PMI value than estimated of 53.2, which is the lowest it has been since March.
However, as both sectors have seen expansion the Composite PMI stands at 54.1, a slight drop to the previous month and the predictions but nether the less representative of Germany’s relatively stable growth levels over the past year.
France
France performed worse than expected with contraction levels lower than estimated numbers in both Manufacturing and Services. The Markit Manufacturing PMI now stands at 47.9, which is the lowest it has been since February 2015, while the Markit Services PMI stands at 49.9, its first level of recorded contraction since March this year but France has not seen a prolonged period of expansions (with Markit Services PMI levels above 50) since December 2015.The composite PMI for France now stands at 49.4.
Italy
Further data published by the Italian National Institute of Statistics shows mixed results for Italian economic performance. While Industrial sales are up 2.1% in April, after a 1.6% slump the month before, this only represents a 0.1% increase on the year to year scale.
Data on industrial orders only show a 1% increase in April after a 3.6% fall in March and a 11% decrease to the previous year.