Latest data released by Markit/BME - 5 October 2021
- Composite PMI 55.5 vs 55.3 prelim
The preliminary report can be found here. A slight revision higher but it still reaffirms the slowest growth in German business activity in four months, with the rate of growth in new business and employment both easing in September.
Meanwhile, a near-record increase in average prices charged by services firms was observed and that is going to be a challenging point for consumers in the months ahead as cost pressures continue to mount going into winter. Markit notes that:
"Services activity grew strongly in the third quarter, but the pace of recovery is slowing and we're set for a more moderate period of economic growth in the final months of the year. Our current forecasts are for a 3.0% quarteron-quarter rise in GDP in Q3, followed by a 1.2% gain in Q4.
"The loss of momentum is partly natural as activity gets closer to pre-pandemic levels, but the drag on growth from material shortages is also becoming more noticeable, impacting services firms directly and also via a slowdown in manufacturing.
"With cost pressures remaining stubbornly high and demand still picking up, the rate of services output price inflation continues to run at close to the quickest in the series history stretching back almost two decades. "Supply bottlenecks are no longer just a manufacturing problem, and the threat of a continued spillover to other parts of the economy, coupled with inflationary pressures, has dampened service providers' growth expectations somewhat."
