Improvement in business activity comes amid 'encouraging' easing of inflationary pressures
Euro area business activity contracted at a slower pace this month, new data has shown, as hopes rise that Tehran and Washington will strike a permanent deal to end the Iran war.
S&P Global’s flash Eurozone PMI Composite Output Index, a closely-watched survey released on Tuesday, found that overall activity in manufacturing and services across the single currency area rose from 48.5 in May to 49.5 in June – pushing the index closer to the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction.
The improvement was partly driven by an upswing in services activity, which remained in negative territory but where the tourism and leisure-related sectors showed “signs of recovering demand” following the disruptions sparked by the Iran war, said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Inflationary pressures also softened, with the increase in output prices easing and input costs rising at the slowest pace since the war’s onset in late February.
