France: Private-sector activity growth hits six-month high in May

The seasonally-adjusted IHS Markit Flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) jumped to 51.3 points in May, climbing from 50.1 points in April and signaling the fastest private-sector activity growth in six months.

May’s upturn reflected stronger services-sector activity once again offset by a fall in manufacturing output—although the pace of losses slowed somewhat from April. New orders overall recovered from a month earlier, although export orders continued to slip. Moreover, employment ticked up. Optimism, on the other hand, eased from April’s nine-month high.

France Fixed Investment Forecast

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists see fixed investment growing 2.3% in 2019, which is down 0.1 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2020, the panel sees fixed investment growth at 2.0%.