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European PMI in May Sees Small Improvement

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Europe got another piece of “less bad” news. The area’s Purchasing Manager’s Index decline was a little better than in previous months, but only a little. However, Spain’s level was the best in 23 months. Add that to slightly better jobs figures and there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Otherwise, according to Markit:

  • Final Eurozone Composite Output Index: 47.7 (Flash 47.7, April 46.9)
  • Final Eurozone Services Business Activity Index: 47.2 (Flash 47.5, April 47.0)
  • Germany ekes out marginal growth, while downturns ease in Spain and France

The downturn in the eurozone economy eased for the second month running in May. Rates of decline eased for both manufacturing production and service sector business activity, reaching 15- and three-month lows respectively.

At 47.7, the final Markit Eurozone PMI Composite Output Index was in line with its earlier flash estimate and above April’s 46.9.

Germany edged out of contraction territory in May, as an improvement in its manufacturing sector offset a slight decrease in service sector business activity. Although the downturns in France, Spain. and Italy all remained marked, rates of contraction eased to a five-month low in France, 23-month low in Spain and stabilised in Italy.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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