July 03, 2024 at 08:45AM
Services PMI 53.7 vs. 53.7 expected and 54.2 prior.
Composite PMI 51.3 vs. 52.3 prior.
Key findings:
Growth of activity and new business ease, but are solid overall.
Cost pressures abate slightly.
Strongest optimism towards the year-ahead outlook since early 2022.
Comment:
Commenting on the final PMI data, Dr Tariq Kamal Chaudhry, Economist at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said:
“Italian services remain the economic powerhouse of the nation. Despite a slight decline from the previous month, the HCOB
Services Business Activity Index remains robust at 53.7, indicating significant growth. The data does reveal some underlying
concerns such as rising prices and fading growth momentum in output and new business, which should be taken in to
account when assessing the outlook. Nevertheless, the surveyed companies maintained an optimistic view regarding future
activity.”
“Growth of employment and total orders remain historically strong. Despite a slight moderation from the previous month,
Italian service providers continued to hire robustly. However, companies report that economic conditions, especially on the
international front, are becoming increasingly more challenging, which led non-domestic sales growth to cool.”
“Cost pressures threaten the momentum of the services sector. Despite historically robust demand for Italian services, firms
seem hesitant to fully to pass on input price inflation to their customers, which implies margin erosion.”
“Optimism is unwavering among service providers. It’s unmistakable from the data that Italian service companies view future
activity quite positively. The degree of confidence is approaching its historical average. Newly acquired customers, improved
economic conditions including lower interest rates, and new projects have been cited as reasons by surveyed companies for
their optimistic outlook.”
This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.