Eurozone: Business Activity Returns to Growth in March

A survey published today, Wednesday, April 7 showed that business activities in the Eurozone returned to growth last month, supported by a record expansion in the manufacturing sector, and that the services sector is facing new lockdown measures better than expected.

Europe is fighting a third wave of the spread of the Coronavirus and governments have re-imposed restrictions on citizens and forced large parts of the dominant service sector to remain closed.

But the IHS Markit PMI for the services sector rose to 49.6 in March from 45.7 in February, well above an initial reading of 48.8 and barely hitting the 50th level separating growth from contraction.

The composite PMI, which combines manufacturing and services and is a good indicator of the resilience of the economy, rose to 53.2 from 48.8, surpassing the initial estimate of 52.5.

Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said: “The economy is carrying the latest shutdowns much better than many had anticipated, thanks to the pick-up in manufacturing growth and indications that social distancing and restrictions on movement have a much smaller impact on service sector activities than at the same time of year.” the past”.

Supply problems led to a big jump in input costs for service companies, which raised their prices for the first time in more than a year. The production price index rose to 50.5 from 4.