Manufacturing down across the Eurozone
EUROZONE manufacturing output slumped in April, with all four major economies suffering from the downturn, data showed yesterday.
Unemployment hit a record high of 10.9 per cent in March, and both sets of data contributed to stocks plummeting in Spain and Italy
Factory production declined sharply last month, Markit’s purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) revealed.
For the Eurozone as a whole, the index fell to a 34-month low of 45.9, a much sharper drop than the 47.7 recorded in March. Any figure below 50 indicates falling activity.
German PMI came in at 46.2, French at 46.9, Spanish at 43.5 and Italian at 43.8.
Meanwhile unemployment hit 10.9 per cent in March, Eurostat said, up from 10.8 per cent in February and from 9.9 per cent in March 2011.
The highest rates are in Spain at 24.1 per cent and Portugal at 15.3, while Greece’s most recent data showed unemployment at 21.7 per cent in January.
Youth unemployment stands at 22.1 per cent for the Eurozone as a whole, and 51.1 per cent in Spain.
Stocks plummeted 2.55 per cent yesterday on the Spanish IBEX due to the sustained gloomy news, while the Italian FTSE MIB tumbled by 2.6 per cent.