France disappointing but Germany’s PMI surprising to the upside - TDS

Research Team at TDS, suggests that this morning’s PMI data came in as we had expected, with France disappointing but Germany surprising to the upside.

Key Quotes

“In France, the services PMI fell from 51.6 to 49.9, with the details actually looking even softer, just because the drivers behind the weakness look to be more of a "tough demand climate" rather than a one-off blip from the labour unrest. There wasn’t any mention of the strikes in fact until the very end of the report in the business expectations section where it mentions "a difficult social climate," but the colour around the contractions in new business, employment, and prices charged focused more on plain old economic weakness.

In Germany the manufacturing PMI rose from 52.1 to 54.4, with the details just as strong as the headline. There was an acceleration in new business growth, with new export orders in particular at a 2.5 year high, and comments on stronger demand from a range of different countries, including China and the US. Job growth was also at its strongest level so far in 2016.”