Germany’s manufacturing sector started 2013 with improved trends in output and new business levels, contrasting with the declines seen through much of last year. The return to growth in production and new work helped lift the final seasonally adjusted Markit/BME Germany Purchasing Managers’ Index® (PMI®) – a composite indicator designed to provide a single-figure snapshot of the performance of the manufacturing economy – to 49.8 in January, from 46.0 during December. This was only fractionally below the neutral 50.0 value, with an acceleration in job shedding the main factor weighing on the headline PMI in the latest ... (full story)