Service-Sector U.S.-Ezone Performance Gap Narrowed Last Month
February 5, 2013
The U.S. non-manufacturing purchasing managers index in January was at 55.2, about a half point less than forecast and down by a similar amount from December. Euroland’s services PMI of 48.6 was revised 0.3 points higher from its preliminary indication and 0.8 points above December’s score. As a result, the spread between the U.S. and Ezone readings fell by 1.3 points to a six-month low. This almost offset the widening of the manufacturing spread, leaving the sum of the two differentials (shown in the right-most column below) at 11.8 points, which is scarcely changed from the November and December results. This sum has been 10.0 points or more for the past year.
In the U.S. survey, faster growth in service-sector employment and prices offset slower growth in sales and new orders. Euroland’s slower overall rate of contraction disguised a diversity of outcomes. The German and Irish readings of 55.7 and 56.8 imply positive expansions comparable to what the U.S. experienced. The German and Spanish indices were each at 19-month highs, but the French service-sector PMI dropped 1.6 points to a 46-month low of 43.6. Italy’s reading of 43.9 implied continuing sharp recession the euro area’s third biggest economy and was the worst Italian reading since last July.
| PMIs | U.S. | Ezone | U.S. | Ezone | Sum of | ||
| Services | Services | Spread | Mf’g | Mf’g | Spread | Spreads | |
| Jan 2012 | 56.8 | 50.4 | +6.4 | 54.1 | 48.8 | +5.3 | +10.9 |
| Feb | 56.1 | 48.8 | +7.3 | 51.9 | 49.0 | +2.9 | +10.2 |
| March | 55.0 | 49.2 | +5.8 | 53.3 | 47.7 | +5.6 | +11.4 |
| April | 53.7 | 46.9 | +6.8 | 54.1 | 45.9 | +8.2 | +15.0 |
| May | 54.1 | 46.7 | +7.4 | 52.5 | 45.1 | +7.4 | +14.8 |
| June | 52.7 | 47.1 | +5.6 | 50.2 | 45.1 | +5.1 | +10.7 |
| July | 52.9 | 47.9 | +5.0 | 50.5 | 44.0 | +6.5 | +11.5 |
| August | 54.3 | 47.2 | +7.1 | 50.7 | 45.1 | +5.6 | +12.7 |
| Sept | 55.2 | 46.1 | +9.1 | 51.6 | 46.1 | +5.5 | +14.6 |
| October | 54.8 | 46.0 | +8.8 | 51.7 | 45.4 | +6.3 | +15.1 |
| November | 54.8 | 46.7 | +8.1 | 49.9 | 46.2 | +3.7 | +11.8 |
| December | 55.7 | 47.8 | +7.9 | 50.2 | 46.1 | +4.1 | +12.0 |
| January | 55.2 | 48.6 | +6.6 | 53.1 | 47.9 | +5.2 | +11.8 |
Copyright 2013, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
ShareThis
