Andrew Kenningham, an economist at Capital Economics, stated in a report that the Eurozone’s PMI provides yet another reason to anticipate economic downturn in the region during the latter half of this year.
He mentioned that the preliminary August composite PMI came in below expectations at 47.0, primarily due to the decline in the services sector. This indicates that the rebound in tourism and hospitality is fading.
Both the services and manufacturing sectors experienced declines in new orders, while employment data revealed signs of weak hiring.
The overall decline in this index is consistent with a roughly 0.3% quarter-on-quarter contraction in third-quarter GDP.
Germany might be the worst-performing country, although the extent of the PMI decline in the country for August suggests some partial reversal could occur in September.
