S&P had published on Wednesday a decline in the index of manufacturing activity to 47.4, against 50.5 in January. stock.adobe.com
The French services sector experienced its “first expansion of activity since October 2022” in February, notes S&P in its press release.
Private sector activity in France returned to growth in February after three months of decline thanks to services, according to the PMI index published on Friday by the S&P Global agency. The composite index that measures this activity recovered to 51.7 against 49.1 in January, 0.1 point more than the index “Flashpublished by S&P Global on February 21.
A value above 50 of this index signals an expansion of activity, and a value below this limit a contraction. “This rebound in activity, however, was entirely based on the good performance of the services sector, with manufacturing production, on the contrary, recording its largest decline since October 2022.“, according to the press release of the agency.
S&P had published on Wednesday a decline in the index of manufacturing activity to 47.4, against 50.5 in January. In February, the French services sector experienced its “first expansion in activity since October 2022, with the increase in February also being the largest in seven months“, notes S&P in its press release published on Friday.
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“Rising” prospects
The index of activity in services, based on a survey of 400 companies, thus stood at 53.1 against 49.4 in January. The latest data put “highlighted a favorable evolution of the French economy, the solid growth of the services sector having made it possible to compensate for the weaknesses of the manufacturing sector“says Joe Hayes, economist at S&P Global quoted in the press release.
But “the prices paid by French service providers have risen sharply again compared to the previous month, and inflation shows no signs of abating so faradds Joe Hayes. However, this situation does not seem very worrying for companies whoseprices charged also posted their second-largest all-time increase in February, suggesting that their pricing power remains high“.
The outlook for activity in servicesare on the rise», the companies surveyed «counting in particular on an imminent recovery in demand to support the growth of their activityaccording to S&P, which adds that the degree of optimism has nevertheless fallen slightly compared to January due to the high level of inflation. For the private sector as a whole, if the prices paid “continued to rise at a strong pace, the inflation rate however fell back to a 12-month low, notably due to a marked easing of cost pressures in the manufacturing sector“.
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