Latest data released by Markit - 1 September 2020
The preliminary release can be found here. Despite a positive revision, the headline still sees French manufacturing falling back into contraction territory in August and underscores the challenges in sustaining the pace of the recovery from April to July.
Markit notes that:
"Following two months of strong growth, the French manufacturing sector suffered a slight setback on its path to recovery, as the rate of output expansion eased substantially in August. New orders barely registered an increase, highlighting the hesitancy among manufacturers' clients to commit to future business. The slower production growth also brought with it a re-acceleration in the rate of job cutting and we saw nervousness from businesses regarding the year ahead, with sentiment softening to the weakest for three months."