Activity is reversing the trend after two months of slowdown: the PMI index, calculated on the basis of business surveys, stood at 55.8 points, its highest level for five months, after 52.3 points in January, which was its lowest performance in eleven months.
A figure above 50 means that activity is growing, and therefore any increase in the index beyond this threshold indicates an acceleration in growth, while activity is contracting if the figure is below 50.
"The easing of sanitary measures resulted in a strong rebound in the growth of the overall activity (...) after two months of sluggish growth linked to the emergence of the Omicron variant and the reintroduction of restrictive measures ", which were partly lifted in February, explain in a note the analysts of Markit.
While the travel and tourism sector experienced “a particularly marked increase in activity”, like all services, “production growth also strengthened in the manufacturing industry, sustained by a firming up of demand and an easing of the tensions on the supply", observes the cabinet.
However, this improvement in supply chains, seized by bottlenecks in recent months, is not yet reflected in invoice prices, which have "registered their largest increase since the start" of the PMI surveys, with an increase " record" prices in services and a "near-record increase" in selling prices in the manufacturing industry.
Faced with rising wages and soaring energy costs, "companies are increasingly seeking to pass on this increase in their costs to their customers", underlines Markit.
The upturn in activity growth was strongest in France, with its biggest increase since June 2021. In Germany, the expansion also accelerated, reaching a peak since August.
© 2022 AFP