Germany March construction PMI 42.9 vs 48.6 prior

• Prior 48.6

The headline reading is a 3-month low as total activity falls at its quickest pace so far this year. New orders also declined at a faster pace although the bright spot is that input costs rose at slowest rate since October 2020. S&P Global notes that:

“March's PMI data showed a setback for the German construction sector, with activity and new orders both falling at accelerated rates and business confidence ticking down.

"The steeper decline in activity in March was perhaps payback from the slowing rates of contraction seen during the opening two months of the year, when unusually mild weather had boosted activity to a degree. That being said, the underlying trend has moved in the right direction, with the headline PMI averaging 45.0 in the first quarter from a low of 42.3 in Q4 last year.

"At a sector level, residential activity in particular remains under pressure, as a combination of rising interest rates, economic uncertainty and a squeeze on real incomes weighs on the housing market.

"There were some encouraging developments elsewhere in the data, however, including the most marked improvement in lead times on building materials for 13 years, which pointed to rapidly easing supply-chain bottlenecks and the cooling of price pressures. Input cost inflation Inflation Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Read this Term has come off the boil, while improving subcontractor availability also means less upward pressure on labour rates."