- Prior 52.4
- Final Composite PMI 53.2 vs 53.1 prelim
- Prior 52.1
Key findings:
- Employment falls again despite positive business expectations
Comment:
Commenting on the PMI data, Cyrus de la Rubia, Chief Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said:
“This is pretty robust growth from the service sector in February. The prospects for continued expansion are good, as new
business grew more strongly than in the previous month, supported by large orders and a noticeable increase in new work
from abroad. The order backlog, which had been declining in the previous three months, also rose in February. However,
companies are trying to cope with the improved business situation with fewer employees. Perhaps companies need a little
more certainty before they start hiring again.
“Costs in the service sector continue to rise quite rapidly. In addition to higher wages, companies cite increased energy and
transport costs as the reason for this. However, they were only able to pass on a smaller portion of these cost increases to
their customers. In view of the increase in business activity, however, we would not derive a trend from this pressure on
margins, especially as optimism about future business activity remains at a high level and has only fallen slightly.
“The Composite PMI indicates that economic growth in the first quarter of the new year could remain at the previous
quarter’s level of 0.3%. Another positive factor is that both the service sector and the manufacturing sector, which had been
a drag on growth for a long time, are expanding, and the order situation has improved in both sectors. The recovery could
thus stabilize.”
This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.
