Germany and Italy go into contraction in latest Markit retail PMI’s for January
– Germany 49.5 vs 50.5 prior
– France 48.9 vs 46.6 prior
– Italy 47.9 vs 50.2 prior
The Eurozone number last month rose from 48.5 in Nov to 49.0 in Dec. Yesterday we saw the main retail sales number for Dec at 0.3% vs -0.3% in Nov. If the Markit data is a fair reflection of retails then perhaps we should be looking for a flat to mild drop in next month’s sales report.