- Euro zone business growth remained weak in December, with tepid foreign demand exacerbating a contraction in manufacturing and offsetting a slight pick-up in services activity, although some analysts saw signs of stabilization.
The private sector business report published on Monday suggests the risks to the euro zone outlook remain skewed to the downside, despite Christine Lagarde’s more upbeat tone in her first news conference as head of the European Central Bank. “The big picture is of an economy showing some stabilization in activity — but today’s drop in the manufacturing PMI is yet another useful reminder that the bloc’s manufacturing sector is far from being out of the woods,” wrote Nicola Nobile, economist at Oxford Economics, adding that the data are consistent with just 0.1% economic growth in the fourth quarter.