Growth At 9-Month Low On Weaker Services

Eurozone Manufacturing PMI beat expectations (58.0 vs 57.8 exp) in December's flash reading, but Services missed (53.3 vs 54.3 exp), leaving Composite a little weaker than survey (53.4 vs 54.4 exp).

• The Composite figure was the lowest since March and points to a "marked" weakening of growth in Q4, per IHS Markit's report, "albeit with the rate of growth remaining above the survey’s pre-pandemic long-run average of 53.0".
• Services saw the weakest rate of growth since April "led by a steep fall in tourism and recreation activity of a similar magnitude to the declines seen at the start of the year amid rising COVID-19 infection rates and associated restrictions across the region."
• The survey showed that Manufacturing supply chain problems may have eased somewhat, with the largest expansion of production since September, and the lowest increase in delivery times since January. Indeed this was the first time in five months that Manufacturing output growth exceeded that of Services.
• Inflationary pressures "cooled", in part due to easing of supply constraints, but this was only relative to November, and December saw the 2nd fastest rates of increase in survey history.
• German growth "stalled", France "continued to grow at a solid pace, albeit down on November", while the rest of the eurozone grew at the slowest since April.

Source: IHS Markit, MNI