Manufacturing PMIs point to a soft start to Q3

July’s manufacturing PMIs from Emerging Europe were, in aggregate, a little better than June’s figures. But they were still weaker than their average over the first half of the year. What’s more, much of the improvement came in Hungary and Russia, where the PMIs have a weak relationship with the hard data. Elsewhere, it looks like two of the region’s better performing economies over the past year – Poland and Turkey – got off to a weak start to the third quarter.