Euro area flash PMI: Broadly stable in August

According to Markit flash PMI, the euro area composite PMI was broadly stable in August, from 51.5 in July to 51.8. Better than expected ( consensus at 51.2) , i t remained in the expansion area. The sentiment in both manufacturing and services sectors slightly improve. But the huge gap of sentiment and performance indices between manufacturing and services remained. T he manufacturing sector index remained deep ly anchored in the contraction area (47 in August after 46.5 in July) while t he resilience of the service sector has not weaken ed (53.4 in August after 53.2 in July ) . These PMI figures support our forecast of a slowdown of the Euro area GDP growth in H2 2019 in a challenging environment, both inside the EU (political instability, Brexit) and outside (economic slowdown in China, slowdown of world trade, extension of the trade war…).