Reuters Videos <\/p>\n
Wed, June 3, 2026 at 2:21 PM GMT+3 <\/p>\n
STORY: Euro zone private sector activity shrank at the fastest rate in 18 months in May.That’s what a key S&P PMI index showed on Wednesday.It said businesses saw weakening demand for goods and services.That dragged output lower for a second month while cost pressures also hit their highest level in three years.The PMI Index fell to 48.5 in May from April’s 48.8.That was its lowest reading since November two years ago.Any reading below the key 50 mark signals contraction.One leading analyst said it looks more likely the economy will slip into contraction in the second quarter. Total new orders fell for a third consecutive month, with the pace of decline the second-sharpest since November 2024.Foreign demand proved a bigger drag, with export orders dropping at the fastest pace so far this year.The pullback was concentrated in the bloc’s two largest economies as both Germany and France recorded contractions in private sector activity.Although Italy and Spain saw slight expansions.Input costs also rose at their sharpest pace in 3-1\/2 years.And prices charged to customers climbed to a 38-month high \u2014 the third consecutive month of accelerating output price inflation.It comes after data released Tuesday showed May inflation jumped to 3.2% – well above the European Central Bank’s 2% target.A further rise is expected as the Middle East war pushes up fuel prices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reuters Videos Wed, June 3, 2026 at 2:21 PM GMT+3 STORY: Euro zone private sector activity shrank at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2480],"tags":[10447,635,440,603,2487,2486,2485,2221,6937,1457,10448,6938,5686,10449,10450,2568,1463,1054,10451,1454,6939,6940,1455,10452,109,10453],"class_list":["post-59375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-euro-zone","tag-401k","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-economy","tag-euro-area","tag-euro-zone","tag-eurozone","tag-finance","tag-financial-information","tag-investing","tag-investment-tools","tag-investor","tag-market-news","tag-mortgage","tag-mutual-funds","tag-personal-finance","tag-quote","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-stock","tag-stock-research","tag-stock-valuation","tag-stocks","tag-suze-orman","tag-tax","tag-track-portfolio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}