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Eurozone outlook worsens as retail struggles

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Data from Markit Economics today showed that yet again there has been no expansion in Eurozone retail this February (release).

Our economics reporter Ben Southwood comments:
 
The state of the retail sector worsened further, data from Markit showed, with the currency bloc’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 44.5 in February, from 45.9 in January. This was the 16th consecutive month with a PMI below 50 – the level which indicates no change in overall conditions
 
The retail gloom hit not only France, which reported a PMI of 44.3, plunging from 47.0, and Italy, whose PMI was 40.6, though this was an improvement on January’s catastrophic 37.5, but even Germany, whose index value dived from 51 to 47.6.
 
PMI numbers typically correspond very well to future growth figures. This does not bode well for a European recovery in 2013.