The eurozone economy showed early signs of bottoming out in a business survey that allayed fears of a deepening recession after a slight improvement in companies’ activity levels, despite remaining in contraction territory.
S&P Global’s closely tracked survey of purchasing managers across the single currency zone found evidence of an easing in the recent decline of new business orders, backlogs of outstanding work and output. Activity fell faster in the manufacturing sector than in services in November, the survey found, but the pace of decline softened in both from a month ago.
“One might find rays of hope gleaming on the horizon for the coming year,” Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, which sponsors the survey, said on Thursday. However, he warned that the “eurozone economy remains stuck in the mud”, with the bloc’s gross domestic product set to contract for the second consecutive quarter in the final months of this year.