- Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist
The Euro zone economy ended 2014 with the poorest performance for over a year as further decline in prices across the region failed to boost business activity, increasing pressure on the European Central Bank to deploy additional stimulus. Markit's final Composite Purchasing Managers' Index for December dropped to 51.4 compared with an earlier estimate of 51.7, but better than the preceding month's reading of 51.1, which marked the lowest level in more than a year. Markit's latest PMI survey, which includes data on performance of the construction, services and manufacturing sectors, suggested the currency bloc's economy crawled by a modest 0.1% in the last quarter of 2014.
Business activity in Germany's services sector remained steady in December, overshooting analysts' expectations and preliminary data. The services PMI in the Euro zone's number one economy came in at 52.1 in December. France's services sector managed to move back into expansion territory, as the final services PMI rose to 50.6 compared with the preliminary 49.8 reading and November's result of 47.9. Meanwhile, Italy's services activity slipped to contraction in the last month of 2014, as the corresponding index dropped to 49.4 in December, down from 51.8 in the previous month. The data last week showed the Euro zone factory activity rose to 50.6, remaining in expansion territory for 18 consecutive months.
© Dukascopy Bank SA