Prior 53.6Composite PMI 51.5 vs 51.9 prelimPrior 52.8<\/p>\n
Both the services and composite readings are three-month lows as overall business activity in the euro area eased towards the end of 2025. A slower rise in demand for euro area goods and services was the main headwind on the month. Meanwhile, there were contrasting fortunes on price developments especially with that seen in Spain (hot) and France (cold). But at the balance, input cost inflation moved up to a nine-month high. So, that reflects some uptick in price pressures at the sector level but the pace of increase in output charges was unchanged from November at least.<\/p>\n
HCOB notes that:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe eurozone services sector has grown for seven months in a row. The pace of expansion slowed in December, but
\noverall, the picture looks good. Companies have even increased their staffing levels more strongly, and new business
\nindicates that they remain on a growth path. Overall, the recovery in services gained momentum in the fourth quarter, which
\nis a good basis for starting the new year with confidence.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Central Bank continues to monitor service inflation very closely, ECB President Christine Lagarde said at the
\ninterest rate press conference in mid-December, and rightly so, because cost inflation in this sector rose again in December.
\nThis in turn means that wages, which are the largest cost item for most service providers, will continue to increase at an
\nabove-average rate. This development, which was also accompanied by slightly higher inflation in sales prices, is, in our
\nview, the most important reason why the ECB has not implemented any further interest rate cuts and does not appear to be
\nplanning any.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe composite PMI averaged a visibly higher level in the last three months of the year than in the third quarter. Against this
\nbackdrop, GDP growth is likely to have accelerated. The decisive impetus is coming from the service sector, while
\nmanufacturing has slowed down. In 2026, the service sector should remain on a moderate growth path. The manufacturing
\nsector is likely to benefit from higher demand for defence equipment and construction machinery, which are needed, among
\nother things, to implement infrastructure projects in Germany. As a result, economic growth of well over 1 percent should be
\npossible again, but is certainly not overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prior 53.6Composite PMI 51.5 vs 51.9 prelimPrior 52.8 Both the services and composite readings are three-month lows as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-219693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}