Prior 49.6Manufacturing PMI 50.2 vs 49.5 expectedPrior 50.1Composite PMI 48.3 vs 49.3 expectedPrior 49.9<\/p>\n
It’s not a good look for France’s economy at the end of Q1 with business activity slumping to a five-month low. The services sector was the main drag, also seeing its weakest showing in five months as it falls further into contraction territory. While manufacturing activity was a two-month high, it belies the underlying performance of the sector with output falling to a four-month low.<\/p>\n
Amid higher energy prices, a key focus of the report is on prices. And we’re already seeing evidence of the Middle East crisis having an impact with input cost inflation accelerating sharply to
\nits strongest since November 2023. That in particular for the manufacturing sector. Trouble, trouble.<\/p>\n
HCOB notes that:<\/p>\n
“It’s clear from March ‘flash’ PMI data that Europe’s
\nsusceptibility to international supply-side disruption
\nremains high. Soaring oil and oil-product prices, rising
\nfuel costs and disrupted maritime supply chains have
\nled to the worst delivery delays from vendors in over
\nthree years and pushed up input prices for French
\ncompanies to an extent not witnessed since late-2023.
\nWe saw a very limited pass-through to selling prices,
\nhowever, likely because prevailing demand conditions
\nprior to the war in the Middle East were subdued. This
\ndynamic could play a crucial role in determining how
\nmuch of this supply shock filters through to the wider
\neconomy.\n<\/p>\n
“March was further complicated by local elections,
\nwith firms reporting that clients held back on spending
\nas a consequence. For that reason, April may give us a
\nbetter indication of the true state of the economy, but
\nfor now, France’s burgeoning recovery looks to be on
\nice. A sharp reduction in business confidence backs
\nthis assessment, with the threat of higher inflation,
\nprolonged supply-side disruption and heightened
\nnear-term uncertainty prompting a re-evaluation of the
\noutlook.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prior 49.6Manufacturing PMI 50.2 vs 49.5 expectedPrior 50.1Composite PMI 48.3 vs 49.3 expectedPrior 49.9 It’s not a good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-492912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}