Last month, a survey found that factories in the Euro zone, which is a group of European countries that use the euro currency, were not doing well. They were making fewer things, and this has been happening for a while, like a long time. In fact, it’s one of the worst times for factories since they started counting in 1997.
They use something called the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) to figure this out. If the PMI is below 50, it means things are not good. In September, the PMI was 43.4, just a tiny bit lower than August’s 43.5.
Another number they look at is called the “output” number. It tells us how much stuff the factories are making. This number also went down, from 43.4 to 43.1. So, for the whole third quarter of the year, the factories were not doing well, and it looks like they are in a kind of economic problem called a recession.
Some countries like France and Germany did worse in September, while Spain and Italy did a bit better, but still not great. Even though the prices that factories charge for their products went down a lot in the last three months, it didn’t help them sell more stuff. This is a big concern for people who make decisions about money in Europe.
The European Central Bank, which tries to keep the economy stable, recently raised interest rates, but now they might stop doing that because things are not going so well. Economists in a poll think they will keep the rates the same until at least July next year.
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