Latest data released by Markit - 3 February 2021
- Prior 48.0
- Composite PMI 43.2 vs 46.0 expected
- Prior 48.7
That's a significant miss as virus restrictions and adverse weather conditions (snowstorm) played a role in impacting Spanish economic activity to start the new year. There was a rapid fall in new business as well, and that's not a good sign in general.
Markit notes that:
"It was a tough start to 2021 for the Spanish service sector as the negative impacts on market activity of the pandemic plus unseasonably poor weather conditions weighed on the services economy.
"Given the challenging near-term outlook, firms are understandably again being forced into employment cuts especially as new business volumes remain weak and operating expenses are rising.
"There is of course some positivity amongst firms over the medium-term, with vaccine rollouts widely viewed as being key to unlocking demand and providing the platform for rapid expansion - but only once conditions return to some form of normality."
