EU economy has ‘likely bottomed out’

brussels — The eurozone’s economic slump has “likely bottomed out” after the bloc suffered a disastrous collapse under lockdowns to contain coronavirus, a closely watched survey by IHS Markit said Thursday.

The contraction across the 19 EU nations using the euro continued in May for the third straight month.

But “the rate of decline eased as parts of the economy started to emerge from lockdowns,” the firm’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) revealed.

The index for May came in at 30.5 points — well above the catastrophic, record-busting

13.5 recorded in April, but still below the 50-point threshold between contraction and expansion.

“The eurozone saw a further collapse of business activity in May but the survey data at least brought reassuring signs that the downturn likely bottomed out in April,” IHS Markit’s chief business economist Chris Williamson said.