A nascent easing of supply bottlenecks helped drive manufacturing activity in Europe’s two largest economies in January, at least partially offsetting the drag from tighter restrictions linked to a surge in coronavirus cases. In Germany, private-sector output unexpectedly rose to a four-month high, with both manufacturing and services activity expanding by more than economists predicted, according to IHS Markit surveys. French growth didn’t hold up as well, though a roughly stable performance by industry helped to partially offset services touching a nine-month low. “Manufacturing is expected to stage a recovery in 2022 as supply bottlenecks ease, but seeing growth of this speed already is a welcome development,” said Phil Smith, economics associate director at IHS Markit. “The drag on production from supply-chain issues looks to have eased further, although there is still […]