Private sector manufacturing output growth across the euro zone slowed in May to a level not seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, a key survey showed today.
Top economy Germany recorded a 'significant slowdown' in its growth rate, with the overall slowing reflecting 'the speed with which uncertainty surrounding the sovereign debt crisis appears to have hit business activity,' the survey said.
The manufacturing purchasing managers' index for the 16 countries which share the euro, compiled by research group Markit, hit 55.8 in May, down from 57.6 in April.
'All countries saw a deterioration in growth of output and new orders,' the researchers said, with the rate of contraction in output in recession-hit Greece 'accelerating to its fastest since April last year and to a pace similar to that seen at the height of the global financial crisis.'
Markit said the extent to which manufacturing growth slowed in May has been exceeded only once in the survey's 13-year history, in the aftermath of Lehman's collapse, with the steepest slowdown seen in November 2008.
Separate figures showed that the euro zone unemployment rate hit a record 10.1% rate in April, with almost 16 million people out of work.
The unemployment rate for the common currency area, up from March, is now running at the highest since the euro came into being in 1999. Eurostat figures show that almost 1.3 million more people are out of work than 12 months earlier.
