The economy of the Eurozone has been weakening for nearly two years now and manufacturing and industrial sectors in particular have been in recession for quite some time, as the trade war affected them negatively. That weakness eventually spread into other sectors such as services, which has forced the ECB to start easing the monetary policy again late last year.
Although, we have been seeing some green shots recently and today’s service PMI reports offered some hopes for the future. Below are the figures from major countries in Europe:
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Spain December services PMI 54.9 vs 53.9 expected
- Prior 53.2
- Composite PMI 52.7 vs 52.0 expected
- Prior 51.9
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Italy December services PMI 51.1 vs 50.9 expected
- Prior 50.4
- Composite PMI 49.3 vs 49.7 expected
- Prior 49.6
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Germany December final services PMI 52.9 vs 52.0 prelim
- Composite PMI 50.2 vs 49.5 prelim
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Eurozone December final services PMI 52.8 vs 52.4 prelim
- Composite PMI 50.9 vs 50.6 prelim
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UK December final services PMI 50.0 vs 49.0 prelim
- PMI 49.3 vs 48.5 prelim
All the numbers above show an improvement in December, compared to November, apart from France. The services sector was approaching contraction, but it seems now that it is moving away from it, which is great. If services fall into contraction/recession, then European economies will fall in recession too, but it looks safe for now.