Latest data released by Markit - 3 April 2020
- Composite PMI 29.7 vs 31.4 prelim
The preliminary report can be found here. The revision lower reaffirms record lows for both readings as the virus outbreak situation strikes down the Eurozone economy last month.
April should offer more of the same but the fear now is that this may carry on into May with economic activity likely to stay subdued throughout the whole of Q2. Markit notes that:
"With various countries stepping up their measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, it's no surprise to see the final PMI for March indicated an even steeper deterioration of business activity than the prior record decline signalled by the provisional 'flash' estimate. The data indicate that the eurozone economy is already contracting at an annualised rate approaching 10%, with worse inevitably to come in the near future.
"The service sector is currently seeing an especially severe impact from the COVID-19 outbreak, with travel, tourism, restaurants and other leisure activities all hit hard by virus containment measures.
"No countries are escaping the severe downturn in business activity, but the especially steep decline in of Italy's service sector PMI to just 17.4 likely gives a taste of things to come for other countries as closures and lockdowns become more prevalent and more strictly enforced in coming months.
"While employment is not yet falling as fast as seen during the financial crisis, the coming months will no doubt see jobless numbers rise sharply, even as governments across the eurozone seek to limit these. However, the ultimate economic cost of the COVID-19 outbreak cannot be accurately estimated until we get more clarity on the duration and scale of the pandemic."
