PARIS (dpa-AFX) - France's manufacturing sector expanded at the slowest pace in three months in December, survey data from IHS Markit showed Thursday.
The factory Purchasing Mangers' Index fell to 50.4 in December from 51.7 in November. The weakness was driven by a slowdown in output growth and a return to contraction in new orders.
Amid a fall in new business, employment in the French manufacturing sector broadly stagnated.
On the cost front, firms recorded the first rise in input prices since August. Manufacturing businesses opted to pass on some of the higher costs to their clients, with a rise in average output prices.
Finally, confidence towards the one-year business outlook eased in December, with the degree of optimism reaching the joint-weakest since April 2016.
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