Eurozone Economy Ended 2024 in Precarious State, PMI shows

• The eurozone economy ended 2024 in a fragile state, according to a survey that showed overall activity contracted for a second straight month in December as a modest recovery in the services industry failed to offset a deeper downturn in manufacturing.
• HCOB's¹ final composite Purchasing Managers' Index for the bloc, compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, rose to 49.6 in December from November's 48.3. That was just above a 49.5 preliminary estimate but still below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. Due to the holiday season, the data were collected earlier than usual, with the survey conducted Dec. 5-18.
• The headline index was boosted by the bloc's dominant services sector, whose PMI bounced back above breakeven to 51.6 from November’s 49.5 but was weighed down by a sharper decline in factory activity.
• An index measuring new services business, a proxy for demand, nudged back into growth territory after three months of decline. It was 50.2 last month, up from 48.1 in November. That was despite a rise in overall prices charged as firms tried to recoup a sharper increase in input costs. The composite output prices index rose to a four-month high of 52.5 from 51.9.

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¹Hamburg Commercial Bank, which sponsors the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the Eurozone. The PMI data is compiled by S&P Global and provides insights into the economic health of the region by surveying business activity in both the manufacturing and services sectors.

(Source: Reuters)