
Euro Area MFG PMIs Drop
Summary
Despite the slippage some consolidation is evident. Germany Spain and Austria were among the ground hogs that left their heads in February and did not scurry lower for the winter. There, MFG PMIs managed to stay higher even though for [...]
Despite the slippage some consolidation is evident.
Germany Spain and Austria were among the ground hogs that left
their heads in February and did not scurry lower for the winter. There,
MFG PMIs managed to stay higher even though for most of the region
manufacturing was seeing darker days in February. France, a country
that had been holding off the declines succumbed in February with its
MFG index dropping to 34.81 from 37.90; Ireland’s MFG sector made a
similarly large drop. EMU as a whole, France, Ireland and The
Netherlands this month sport MFG PMI readings that are the lowest ever.
The UK, Italy and Germany each are less than 1% up from their
respective lows. To be sure it remains a very weak February for
European manufacturing. But the good news is that the downturn is NOT
getting worse in several key countries and that the pace of
deterioration where things are unraveling is largely slowing. France
and Ireland are to be taken as notable exceptions. Looks like the Irish
have run out of luck and the French continue to buck the trends to
which everyone else is subject.
NTC/Markit MFG Indices | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Feb-09 | Jan-09 | Dec-08 | 3Mo | 6Mo | 12Mo | Percentile | |
Euro-13 | 33.55 | 34.42 | 33.87 | 33.95 | 37.25 | 43.41 | 0.0% |
Germany | 32.14 | 31.96 | 32.66 | 32.25 | 37.11 | 44.84 | 0.7% |
France | 34.81 | 37.90 | 34.91 | 35.87 | 38.08 | 43.75 | 0.0% |
Italy | 34.99 | 36.06 | 35.54 | 35.53 | 37.61 | 42.55 | 0.2% |
Spain | 31.85 | 31.51 | 28.49 | 30.62 | 32.37 | 37.65 | 11.7% |
Austria | 34.58 | 33.12 | 35.01 | 34.24 | 38.40 | 43.95 | 5.7% |
Ireland | 33.20 | 38.94 | 37.87 | 36.67 | 38.42 | 41.62 | 0.0% |
Netherlands | 35.47 | 36.29 | 38.42 | 36.73 | 40.41 | 45.62 | 0.0% |
EU | |||||||
UK | 34.68 | 35.79 | 34.94 | 35.14 | 36.94 | 42.26 | 0.2% |
percentile is over range since March 2000 |
Robert Brusca
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.