According to the flash PMI, the eurozone economy failed to pick up momentum in December, rounding off a fourth quarter in which output rose at the weakest pace since the economy pulled out of its downturn in the second half of 2013. Employment growth slowed to a five-year low and price pressures moderated further. However, while the manufacturing recession deepened, the service sector showed welcome signs of resilience in the face of the headwinds from the factory downturn. By country, France continued to provide a key support to growth in the single currency area, but Germany remained in a mild downturn, fueled by a steepening manufacturing recession. Growth in the rest of the region continued to run at the slowest for six years.

At 50.6 in December, the ‘flash’ IHS Markit Eurozone Composite PMI remained at that level for a third successive month, running just above the 50.0 no-change level to indicate only very modest growth of output across the manufacturing and service sectors for a fourth consecutive month. The December reading rounds off a fourth quarter in which output rose at the weakest pace since the economy pulled out of its downturn in the second half of 2013.

Some brighter news came from a rise in new order inflows for the first time since August, but the increase was only marginal. Backlogs of work consequently fell for a tenth straight month, albeit declining at the slowest rate since June.