According to provisional PMI survey data, the eurozone economy suffered an unprecedented collapse in business activity in March as the coronavirus outbreak intensified.

At 31.4 in March, the 'flash' IHS Markit Eurozone Composite PMI collapsed from 51.6 in February to register the largest monthly fall in business activity since comparable data were first collected in July 1998. The prior low was seen in February 2009, when the index hit 36.2.

While growth had accelerated modestly in the first two months of the year, March saw widespread disruptions to business from increasingly strict measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.

The services sector was especially hard hit, notably within consumer-facing industries such as travel, tourism and restaurants. The survey's service sector business activity index slumped just over 24 points from 52.6 in February to reach 28.4, surpassing the survey's prior low of 39.2 (recorded in February 2009) by a wide margin.

Manufacturing saw a less severe, though nevertheless still steep, downturn in production. The survey's gauge of factory output dropped just over nine points, down from 48.7 to 39.5, registering the largest monthly contraction of production since April 2009.