There was some economic good news for eurozone companies and politicians on Monday as the latest business surveys revealed elements of a recovery – albeit a rather lopsided one with Germany steaming ahead and France floundering.<br /><br />Markit’s Flash Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers’ Inde (PMI), which gauges business activity across thousands of companies large and small, rose to 52.1 in December from 51.7 last month.<br /><br />It was the second-highest reading since mid-2011. The index has been above the 50 mark that denotes growth for all the second half of the year.<br /><br />But European Central Bank head Mario Draghi, speaking before the European Parliament, called the recovery fragile and said the ECB’s stimulus measures need more time: “Monetary policy in order to have its effect on prices and output has to be transmitted and there is a certain amount of time. I often say it takes a while before our monetary policy gets transmitted to the real economy. Other than that I think we have plenty of instruments to cope with deflation. We don’t see as I said, this risk now, but we are certainly very well aware.” <br /><br />Draghi was also asked about the loss of his key ally, ECB board member Joerg Asmussen, who is quitting to join Germany’s new government.<br /><br />Asmussen has been central to sorting out the eurozone crisis and the ECB’s chief negotiator in creating an EU “banking union” <br /><br />Draghi smiled as he said: “His contribution to the work of the Executive Board and the ECB has been invaluable. We’ll miss him, we’ll miss him a lot.” <br /><br />A leading candidate to succeed Asmussen is Sabine Lautenschlaeger, the Vice President of Germany’s central bank, who already has the backing of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
