Middle East turmoil affecting demand, France's March service sector PMI further contracting.

Business surveys show that due to the Middle East war leading to weak customer spending, and businesses remaining cautious ahead of local elections, the French service industry further contracted in March. S&P Global stated that the final value of the French service industry PMI fell from 49.6 in February to 48.8 in March, slightly improving from the initial value of 48.3. The composite PMI final value also fell from 49.9 in February to 48.8 in March. S&P Global said that this was the fastest decline in private sector business activity since October last year. S&P Global added that the war between the US and Iran is impacting French companies, both in terms of inflation and in terms of customers delaying orders or investments. Chief economist of S&P Global Market Intelligence Joe Hayes said: "There is a lot of uncertainty in the future, considering the domestic political environment, French companies have been quite used to this situation in recent years. Uncertainty is detrimental to growth, and the inflation impact brought by the war increases the risk of stagnation in France."