Euro area February manufacturing PMI likely revised down from flash estimate on global markets volatility

Euro area manufacturing PMI for February is expected to have been revised down from the flash estimate by one tick to 50.9 due to the recent volatility in global markets and uncertainty in global demand. This suggests a drop of 1.5 percentage points from January and will be consistent with the GDP growth of 0.3% q/q in Q1 2016.

Data for Germany is expected to confirm the flash estimate of 50.2, whereas for French PMI it is likely to have been revised downward from the flash print of 50.3 to 50.1. Italy's PMI data is expected to have dropped from January's 53.2 to 52.2, whereas Spain is expected to report a bigger drop, partially because of domestic political uncertainty.