Europe's Industries Just Had A Disastrous Quarter
The eurozone's manufacturers hinted at extremely weak growth in December, with a score of 50.6 in Markit's purchasing manager's index. Anything above 50 for the business survey signals growth, but Europe's second and third largest economies are in negative territory.
The fourth quarter was the worst for European industry since the third quarter of 2013, when the currency union was just emerging from a technical recession.
Here's how that looks in context:
And here's the scorecard for the major economies:
France: 47.5 in December (48.4 in November, 47.9 expected)
Italy: 48.4 in December, 19 month low (49 in November, 49.6 expected)
Germany: 51.2 in December (49.5 in November, 51.2 expected)
Spain: 53.8 in December (54.7 in November, 54.9 expected)
In short, it's bad news. Europe's industry looks even worse for wear, and it wasn't exactly looking healthy before.