Euro area flash PMIs to be little changed

In a relatively quiet week, euro area August "flash" PMIs (Friday) are likely to confirm continued recovery in the manufacturing sector but no acceleration in growth. 

"We forecast the manufacturing PMI to drop slightly to 52.3 from 52.4, the services PMI to drop to 53.6 from 54.0 to give a composite PMI reading of 53.6 from 53.9 in July," says Barclays. 

In the context of relatively weak Q2 GDP growth of just 0.3% q/q and substantial spare economic capacity, the view of continued aggressive ECB QE and further EUR weakness remains unchanged.