Finland Times

Eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) was at 50.6 in October, up from September's 14-month low of 50.3, reported Markit on Monday.

The eurozone manufacturing sector remained in a state of near-stagnation in October, as weak demand continued to restrict growth of both output and employment across the board, Markit reported.

Only four countries' manufacturing industries signalled expansion during October; they were Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany.

Irish PMI remains far out in front and is ticking higher following a slight easing in September. Germany was the only other nation to show improved overall manufacturing performance in October.

But national PMI data highlighted the ongoing performance disparities between countries.

The downturn in France snowballed and Italy fell back into contraction. Austria fell further from the rest of the pack as its PMI sank to a two-year low.

"Final manufacturing PMIs for October suggest that global growth may be slowing a little at the start of Q4, dragged down by the euro-zone's chronic problems," said Andrew Kenningham, global economist at Capital Economics, a London-based economic research company.

Rob Dobson, Senior Economist at Markit said: "The performance of eurozone manufacturing remained broadly flat at the start of the final quarter, as the sector struggles to recover the traction lost following its mid-year slowdown. Manufacturing is therefore unlikely to provide any meaningful boost to the currency union's anaemic GDP growth."

Markit is a global provider of financial information services. It produced the Eurozone Manufacturing PMI based on original survey data collected from a representative panel of around 3,000 manufacturing firms.