Europe/PMI-The crisis in industry is deepening | Photo credit: Shutterstock
LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – The decline in activity in the euro zone’s manufacturing sector was even steeper than initially estimated in October, confirming that the sector has entered a recession, final results from the Eurozone show on Wednesday. S&P Global’s Monthly Survey of Purchasing Managers.
The PMI manufacturing index fell to 46.4, the lowest in 29 months, after 48.4 in September. A first estimate had given it at 46.6.
A sub-index measuring the evolution of production, which enters into the calculation of the composite PMI expected on Friday, fell to 43.8 after 46.3 and now displays five consecutive minuses below the 50 mark separating expansion and contraction.
“In October, new orders fell at a rate we had rarely seen in 25 years of data collection; only during the worst months of the pandemic and at the height of the global financial crisis between 2008 and 2009 that the decline was even steeper,” said Joe Hayes, senior economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The new orders sub-index fell to 37.9 last month from 41.3 in September despite a slight ebb in inflationary pressures, which remain historically high.
“Manufacturing business sentiment remained entrenched in negative territory in October, suggesting that companies expect difficult conditions to persist well into 2023,” added Joe Hayes. (Report Jonathan Cable, French version Marc Angrand, edited by Kate Entringer)