Another recession in March for companies in the euro area. The Procurement Managers' Index fell to 49,1 points, as reported by the research firm Markit Economics, from 49,3 points in February. The value thus remained below the 50 point threshold, the limit between expansion and decline in activity, although it turned out to be slightly higher than the 48,7 points indicated in the preliminary estimate. The PMI index on services instead stood at 49,2 points, from 48,8 points in February and against an initial estimate of 48,7 points.
The recessionary trend also continued in Italy, on which Markit released data relating to service sector companies: the PMI stood at 44,3 points from 44,1 points in February. Italian tertiary companies have reduced their workforce for the tenth consecutive month, due to the sharp decrease in activities and pressure on costs. The index relating to all Italian industrial and service companies, elaborated together with the ADAC, stood at 45,6 points in March.
As for Euroland, “the economy has been steadily declining since September – commented Chris Williamson, chief economist of Markit -. While the average rate of decline recorded in the first quarter slowed from that of the last three months of last year, the survey still indicates that the region has slipped back into a technical recession. However, so far the decline has been only slight, with GDP likely to fall by only 0,2 percent in the first quarter. Furthermore, with optimism in the services sector on the rise since last year, the recession may only be temporary.
In the meantime though personnel cuts were also recorded in the euro area as a whole, for the third consecutive month in March. The continued decline in employment in Spain and Italy was followed by a slight decline in personnel in France, notes Markit, which concluded a phase of improvements that lasted five months. Firms from Germany and Ireland, on the other hand, have taken on. For Ireland, this was the first staff increase in a year.
