The global economy looks increasingly likely to be heading into a serious slowdown, just as central banks aggressively reverse ultra-loose monetary policy adopted during the pandemic to support growth, data showed on Friday.
In the euro zone, business activity contracted this month for the first time in well over a year while in Britain growth was at an 11-month low, purchasing managers' surveys said on Friday.
"We've had a massive increase in global energy and food prices and that is hitting consumers' disposable income and forcing them to cut back," said Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics.Euro zone business activity unexpectedly contracted this month due to an accelerating downturn in manufacturing and a near-stalling of service sector growth as burgeoning costs pushed consumers to cut back on expenditure, a survey showed.