By Robert Daniel
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- An index benchmarking euro-zone manufacturing firms fell to a seven-month low in May. The final euro-zone manufacturing-purchasing-managers index, compiled by the London data provider Markit, fell to 54.6 for last month from 58 in April. The initial, or flash, estimate for the May figure had been 54.8. The decline in the index was the sharpest since November 2008, Markit said, "as manufacturers reported slower rates of increase in output, new orders, employment and inventory accumulation." The report said that in all the countries covered, the purchasing-managers indexes "signaled a broad-based slowdown in the pace of recovery, with headline [indexes] retreating from their April levels."
