Markit's preliminary reading of the Euro area PMI came out last night (=today in America). Unsurprisingly, another fall, though a small one, from 45.1 to 44.8.
The chart below shows the year-on-year change in the euro currency area industrial production (right scale) and the PMI (left scale).
The slide continues.
As Markit put it:
Euro-region gross domestic product probably dropped 0.6 percent in the second quarter, according to Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. In the year’s first three months, the area’s economy stalled.
“The downturn is gathering pace and spreading across the region, with Germany on course for a marginal fall in GDP in the second quarter, though far steeper declines are likely elsewhere,” Williamson wrote in the statement. “Firms are preparing for conditions to worsen in the coming months, with the darker outlook often attributed to uncertainty caused by the region’s ongoing economic and political crises.”
It's bizarre that the ECB hasn't cut its discount rate to zero. Staggering incompetence, from them and the European pollies.
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