European manufacturing is increasingly in difficulty, while the Eurozone economy is on the verge of stagnation due to the collapse in demand for goods and services, the most alarming for six years.
According to the flash estimate by IHS Markit, the Eurozone manufacturing PMI dropped to 45,6 points in September from 47 in August, reaching its lowest level in 83 months. The composite PMI instead dropped to 50,4 points (51,9 in August), the minimum value in 75 months. The figure is dangerously close to the threshold of 50 points, considered the watershed between improvement and deterioration.
The PMI of Tertiary Activities in the Eurozone also fell to 52 points, at an 8-month low.
What is most worrying is Germany, where in September the PMI manufacturing index collapsed to 41,44 points against 43,5 in August. Bloomberg, on the contrary, had forecast a rise to 44 points. As for the other data, the PMI index for the services sector fell to 52,5 points (from 54,2 points) while the composite index fell below 50 to 49,1 points from 51,7 ,XNUMX of August.
At the continental level, the worsening economic situation, the report points out, has gone hand in hand with the current pessimism about future prospects. Expectations for 2020 have remained steady at one of their lowest levels since 2012, hinting at only a slight rise since last August.
France was also bad, where foreign orders worsened again, production growth levels, new orders fell to their lowest in four months and tertiary sector expansion dropped to its weakest since May. The production of goods was also down, collapsing for the eighth month out of the past twelve, even if the drop was only marginal.
The data published this morning caused an immediate worsening of the European stock exchanges. Frankfurt is the worst and scores -1,35%. Down by 1% Milan and Paris, while Madrid down by 0,9%. London is doing little better, where the Ftse 100 drops by 0,7%.
