PARIS (Reuters) -French economic activity contracted in September at the sharpest rate since April, as both manufacturing and services sectors in the euro zone’s second-largest economy experienced declines, S&P Global reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The HCOB Flash France Composite PMI Output Index fell to 48.4 in September from 49.8 in August, marking a five-month low. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity.<\/p>\n
The manufacturing sector was particularly hard-hit, with its headline PMI dropping to 48.1 from 50.4 in August, its lowest level in three months. The manufacturing output index also plunged to 45.9 from 49.8, reaching a seven-month low. Meanwhile, the services PMI slipped to 48.9 from 49.8, a two-month low.<\/p>\n
The downturn was driven by subdued customer demand, with total new orders falling for the sixteenth consecutive month.<\/p>\n
“After signs of stabilization in the French private sector over the summer months, the September data has brought a sobering reality check,” said Jonas Feldhusen, an economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank. “Economic activity in France has weakened more sharply than at any point since April.”<\/p>\n
Despite the slowdown, employment in the private sector rose for the second consecutive month, albeit marginally. However, business confidence remained subdued, with political uncertainty cited as a factor weighing on expectations.<\/p>\n
In terms of pricing, French companies reduced their charges for the first time since May, despite a softer rise in operating costs – reflecting strong competition and weak demand.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Hugh Lawson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (Reuters) -French economic activity contracted in September at the sharpest rate since April, as both manufacturing and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[110775,2000,299,150252,36,35862,150253],"class_list":{"0":"post-445277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-economic-activity","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-flash-france","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-manufacturing-sector","14":"tag-services-sectors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115252533907940353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}