“Although construction sector hiring continued to boom, service sector employment showed the smallest rise for five months and factory headcounts rose only modestly”, the report added.
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A solid measure of new business was offset by the weakest pace of job creation in the sector since July, while long-term expectations for business activity among firms were the lowest since 2013.
“It’s particularly encouraging to see firms taking on staff in increased numbers, suggesting that businesses are preparing for stronger demand in the coming year by boosting capacity”, Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said in a statement. The composite PMI for France fell to 50.1 from 51.0 in November, its lowest level in 11 months as the services sector slipped into a slight contraction.
Elsewhere, Capital Economics economist Vicky Redwood said there was clearly no reason for the central bank to raise interest rates soon with the recovery having lost some of its shine in 2015 and the further fall in oil prices having weakened the near-term outlook for inflation even more. “If you print enough money, you will always get inflation”.
The service sector continues to drive the USA economy forward.
“There is no plan B, there is only one plan”, said Mr. Praet.
Estimates of GDP for the final three months of 2015 have been revised down slightly to 0.5%, following a slowdown in the growth of Britain’s dominant services sector. Activity growing in line with historical norms and muted inflationary pressures offer strong backing for keeping the Bank Rate where it is’. The forecast was slated for no change in December 2015 from 53.9.
A separate release from the German automotive association VDA showed that Germans rushed to buy new cars in December.
However, growth in the second half of 2015 was lower than average growth for 2015 as a whole (56.7) and 2014 (58.2). The VDA president, Mattias Wissmann, predicted at the beginning of December that the full-year number would come in at 3.17 million, highlighting the surprisingly strong reading for the last month.
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Some of that performance might be explained by below-average growth at Volkswagen, which is still struggling with the ripple effects from its emissions scandal.
