Manufacturers in Central Europe feeling the squeeze

June’s PMI data provide further evidence that manufacturers in the highly open economies of Central Europe are being hit hard by the crisis in the euro-zone, while those in Russia and Turkey are faring a little better. Even so, in the case of Turkey, a sharp drop in the export orders balance last month is a worrying sign which, if continued, would suggest that the difficult process of current account rebalancing is about to get much harder.