Manufacturing activity showed scant sign of picking up across Europe and Asia in May as demand stayed stubbornly weak, highlighting the need for central banks to continue supporting growth. The gloomy business surveys come a little less than three months after the European Central Bank embarked on a 1 trillion-euro stimulus program and will likely fuel expectations its counterpart in Beijing will have to roll out more aggressive policy measures. Euro zone factory growth was weaker than previously thought last month while Chinese factory activity barely accelerated and South Korean exports sank. “Across the euro zone as a whole it is plodding along. We can probably do with a little bit more strength out of Germany and France,” said Peter Dixon at Commerzbank. “We are going to have to live with rather slower growth in China. We have seen some modest monetary easing and I expect that will […]