Europe: A day of PMIs – BBH

Analysts at BBH point out that today's economic reports have been largely limited to Europe's manufacturing PMI and the eurozone's report was in line with the flash reading of 56.6, but that is down from 58.6 in February.  

Key Quotes

“A spokesperson for Markit that compiles the surveys seemed to play down the loss of momentum on expectations of Q1 growth, but did recognize that a change was afoot.  The German and French revisions seemed to offset each other (Germany to 58.2 from 58.4 flash and 60.6 in February, and France to 53.7 from 53.6 and 55.9 in February).  Spain slipped to 54.8 from 56 in February, which was slightly better than expected.  Italy's fell to 55.1 from 56.8 and was a bit worse than expected.”

“The UK's manufacturing PMI offered an upside surprise.  It came it at 55.1.  The median forecast (Bloomberg survey) was for 54.7.  On the other hand, the February series was revised to 55.0 from 55.2.  The winter storm seemed not to have had much impact.  Output and employment rose, but the pipeline is thinning.  New orders rose by the least in nine months and the backlog fell every month in the quarter.  Markit recognizes that the UK "manufacturing has entered a softer growth phase."