BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Germany's private sector suffered the steepest contraction in more than three years in August, flash data released by S&P Global and Hamburg Commercial Bank showed Wednesday.
At 44.7, the flash composite output index hit a 39-month low in August, down from 48.5 in July. The score was forecast to fall to 48.3.
The services Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to a nine-month low of 47.3 from 52.3 in the previous month. The score was also below economists' forecast of 51.5.
At the same time, the manufacturing PMI rose to 39.1 from 38.8 a month ago. The expected reading was 38.7.
'Any hope that the service sector might rescue the German economy has evaporated. Instead, the service sector is about to join the recession in manufacturing, which looks to have started in the second quarter,' Cyrus de la Rubia, chief economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said.
'Our GDP nowcast model, which incorporates the PMI flash estimate, now indicates a deeper fall of the whole economy than it did before, at almost -1%,' the economist added.
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