PARIS (Reuters) – Manufacturing activity in the euro zone contracted in August, at a slower pace than in July, show the final results of the S&P Global/Hamburg Commercial Bank monthly survey of company directors. purchases published on Friday.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, stands out with its negative outlook, which will fuel the debate around its place as “Europe’s sick man”.
The final purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the euro zone rose to 43.5 in August, against an initial estimate of 43.7, and after 42.7 in July.
The bar of 50 separates growth and contraction of activity.
The index measuring production, which feeds the composite PMI expected on Tuesday and which is considered a good indicator of the economic health of the region, fell from 42.7 to 43.4.
“These numbers are not as negative as they first appear,” said Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank.
“All twelve sub-indices were up or essentially unchanged, showing that the downward trend of the past few months is starting to run out of steam.”
However, the new orders index fell from 39.1 to 39.0, the second lowest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Production costs have contracted for the sixth consecutive month and factories have again passed on some of these cuts to consumers, which should relieve the European Central Bank, which has not yet succeeded in bringing inflation back to its target.
According to a narrow majority of economists polled by Reuters, the ECB is expected to suspend interest rate increases in September, but will increase them again this year to take its key rate to 4.0%.
(Report Jonathan Cable, French version Corentin Chapron, edited by Kate Entringer)
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