GERMAN PMI COMES SURGING BACK IN JANUARY
Germany shows why it's the envy of Europe once again.
The PMI index for Germany came surging back to 49.8, nearly back into expansion mode.
This is far better than the modest improvement in Spain and Italy, and clearly WAY better than the decline in neighbor France.
Germany’s manufacturing sector started 2013 with improved trends in output and new business levels, contrasting with the declines seen through much of last year. The return to growth in production and new work helped lift the final seasonally adjusted Markit/BME Germany Purchasing Managers’ Index a composite indicator designed to provide a single-figure snapshot of the performance of the manufacturing economy – to 49.8 in January, from 46.0 during December. This was only fractionally below the neutral 50.0 value, with an acceleration in job shedding the main factor weighing on the headline PMI in the latest survey period. The index has now posted below 50.0 in each of the past 11 months, but the latest reading signalled the slowest pace of deterioration over this period.
