PARIS (Reuters) – France’s manufacturing sector contracted in September for the eighth month in a row, with production and new orders falling at the sharpest pace in more than three years, final results from the S&P Global/Hamburg Commercial Bank monthly survey of purchasing managers published Monday.
The sector PMI came in at 44.2, compared to an initial estimate of 43.6. It stood at 46.0 in August.
The 50 mark separates growth and contraction in activity.
“The French manufacturing sector is still bogged down,” said Norman Liebke, economist at the Hamburg Commercial Bank, noting that production levels have declined in all three segments of the sector (consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods).
Industry officials have further reduced purchasing operations, inventory levels and hiring in the face of weak demand. Employment in the sector as a whole thus contracted for the fourth consecutive month.
According to the survey, about a third of executives surveyed predict a decline in production in the coming year.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; by Claude Chendjou, editing by Kate Entringer)
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