A sluggish start to the year

The limited economic data so far released for January suggest that the new year has got off to a pretty sluggish start. The euro-zone composite Purchasing Managers’ Index fell for the first time in 11 months and suggests that GDP growth has yet to gather pace after Q3’s 0.4% quarterly gain. Meanwhile, despite increasing in January, the EC’s Economic Sentiment Indicator points to barely positive annual GDP growth. For now, this looks consistent with small quarterly falls in activity in Q4 and Q1.