Latest data released by Markit - 5 October 2021
- Composite PMI 55.3 vs 55.1 prelim
The preliminary report can be found here. A slight revision sees the French services sector keep more resilient last month, as demand conditions remain more robust in supporting the strong level of business activity.
Rising inflation pressures are a concern though and will pose a bigger challenge in the months ahead. New orders also lost some growth momentum but employment conditions are solid, so there's that. Markit notes that:
"France's service sector continued to drive the broader economic recovery in September. Although growth peaked earlier in the summer, services activity growth is still holding fairly close to that level.
"Reading through our panel member comments, it seems that demand is getting ever closer to reaching pre-pandemic levels, which explains why new order growth slowed in September, although some reports indicated that the "pass sanitaire" - which is used to prove members of the public have a low COVID-19 transmission risk - has had some negative impact on demand.
"More positively, however, employment growth accelerated and was close to a three-year high. Firms are shaping up their businesses to be capable of stronger activity growth, which is a clear positive sign as we head into what could potentially be a challenging winter period for Europe, fraught with uncertainty regarding the trajectory of the pandemic and associated challenges, especially in goods supply and price levels."
