Core economies weakening

The past month has brought the firmest signs yet that the euro-zone economic slowdown is spreading from the region’s periphery to the northern “core”. July’s decline in the German Composite PMI was sharper than the euro-zone average, leaving it consistent with stagnant GDP in what was previously the region’s strongest economy. With French and Dutch business surveys weakening too, the core economies are unlikely to support the periphery or shield the euro-zone as a whole from a marked economic slowdown.