Euro zone manufacturers appear to have passed their nadir, a survey showed on Monday, but activity is still contracting sharply as government-imposed lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic keep demand in check. Many countries in the bloc have slowly started to reopen parts of their economies even though cases of the virus — which has infected more than 5.8 million people worldwide and killed over 360,000 — are still being reported. So after crashing to its lowest reading in the survey’s nearly 22-year history in April, IHS Markit’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) recovered somewhat last month. It rose to 39.4 in May from April’s 33.4, still a long way from the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction and just below an earlier flash reading of 39.5. An index measuring output, which feeds into a composite PMI due on Wednesday, remained weak but did almost […]