Italy Services and Manufacturing PMI November 2007

Just to keep our data up to date here are the latest NTC Economics/Bloomberg PMIs for Italy. The Italian services sector purchasing managers' index fell to a seasonally adjusted 50.8 in November from 55.3 in October. A reading on these indexes above 50 indicates that the sector is generally expanding, while a reading below 50 suggests that it is generally contracting. So Italian services are still ekeing out a small expansion, but they are creaking.



Meanwhile the Italian manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index remained at a seasonally adjusted 51.3 in November the same level as registered in October. So in both cases, the expansion continues, but only just, which is the same thing as saying that- since the negative exports balance is now a net drain on GDP growth, and government spending should be under a tight rein to bring down the debt - the the Italian economy may now be near to a contraction phase.