Europe’s economic engine just stalled. Business activity across the euro area contracted for the second consecutive month, hitting its slowest pace in two and a half years according to the latest composite PMI data from S&P Global.
The reading dropped below 50, the line that separates expansion from contraction. In English: more businesses are shrinking than growing, and the gap is widening.
What the numbers actually show
The composite PMI, which blends manufacturing and services data into a single snapshot of economic health, now sits firmly in contraction territory. Both output and new orders are declining, with new business inflows falling at a rate not seen since the aftermath of the COVID-era demand peak.
That last detail matters. The post-pandemic period was supposed to be an anomaly, a one-off disruption. Seeing comparable weakness now, in a supposedly normalized economy, is the kind of thing that makes central bankers reach for the rate-cut lever.
