Here are some of the highlights:
- Total new business inflows fell at the quickest rate in 2½ years (France)
- Pace of hiring slowed to its weakest for the year (France)
- Total new business inflows saw sharpest drop in >3 years (Germany)
- Firms’ expectations towards future activity turns negative for first time since December (Germany)
- Overall rate of job creation was the joint-weakest in 2½ years (Germany)
- Manufacturing payroll sees first drop in numbers since January 2021 (Germany)
- Services sector costs are seen rising sharply, even topping June (Germany)
The above is offset somewhat by the fact that employment conditions in France remains relatively solid and business expectations there are still holding up. In fact, French business confidence did strengthen for the first time since March despite all the pessimism.
As for Germany, the only saving grace is that overall price pressures do show further signs of easing in July – though largely from the manufacturing sector. The same is also observed in France, so at least that is something that does help to skew the inflation picture slightly. However, the rise in services sector costs is worrying and may keep pressuring the ECB further ahead of September.