German PMI: Manufacturing "Held Back By Supply Shortages"

German April flash PMI came in mixed but overall weaker than expected, with services at 50.1 (51.0 exp., 51.5 prior) and manufacturing at 66.4 (65.8 exp., 66.6 prior). This put the composite figure at 56.0, a bigger deceleration than expected (57.0 exp., 57.3 prior).

• All of those readings represented 2-month lows, and came on the back of "services activity stalling and the upturn in manufacturing production partly held back by supply shortages" per IHS Markit.
• Services in particular stalled due to "the impact of the pandemic and stricter lockdown measures".
• New business rose for the 10th straight month, but slightly more slowly than in March, while backlogs increased by the most since Feb 2011 as goods producers "struggled to keep pace with demand" and services businesses saw their first rise in backlogs for 21 months.
• Job creation was the quickest for 2.5 years. Services jobs rose at the most since the pandemic.
• Input costs rose at the fastest pace for over a decade "amid widespread reports of an imbalance of supply and demand for inputs as well as higher fuel and energy prices". Businesses responded by passing through some of those costs to buyers (mostly on the manuf side).
• Optimism remained strong but dipped slightly from March's record high.