In September, manufacturing activity in the Eurozone drops, and Italy does worse than the average. The PMI index of Euroland it stopped at 51,1 points: a level lower than the 51,4 points recorded in August, but still higher than the fateful threshold of 50 points, which marks the boundary between expansion and contraction. The same goes for the our country, which in the same period saw its manufacturing PMI drop from 51,3 to 50,8 points.
As regards the other major economies of the Eurozone, the figure relating to Germany dropped from 51,8 to 51,1, while in France the index rose from 49,7 to 49,8, the highest value in 19 months (but still too low to get out of the contraction). The SME of Spain it decreased from 51,1 to 50,7 points.
"The third consecutive month-on-month improvement in Eurozone manufacturing operating conditions sends encouraging signs that the sector is providing critical stimulus for a recovery hitherto beset by recession," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit –. However, we should not delude ourselves too much, since, although the PMI has recorded its best performance in more than two years in recent months, it has decreased slightly since August, and has remained only slightly above the no-change level of 50.0. This proves that this is only the beginning of what appears to be a weak recovery.
According to Markit, in September the largest PMI remains that of the Netherlands, registering the highest value for almost two and a half years. Greece, on the other hand, remains at the bottom of the table.
