Prior 50.1It's just a minor downgrade to the final estimate as France's manufacturing sector continues to stagnate in light of the Middle East conflict. The two biggest things to note are that suppliers' delivery times and input cost inflation both surged significantly on the month.The former lengthened to its greatest degree since January 2023 while the latter saw a steep increase to its highest since December 2022.Besides that, demand conditions also waned further with international customer demand seeing its steepest deteriorationsince July last year. That alongside an already weak domestic market sentiment.HCOB notes that:"The March PMI revealed an immediate impact fromthe war in the Middle East. The survey data, collectedbetween 12-24 March, imply a rapid supply-sidesqueeze from the conflict as delivery times lengthenedsubstantially and input costs soared. The passthroughto output prices appears to be fairly contained at thisstage. This could be due to an unfavourable demandenvironment limiting French producers' pricing power,although firms may also be stalling price increasesin the hope that there is a quick resolution to the warthat brings with it a normalisation of supply and priceconditions."The uncertainty from the war in the Middle East hasalso led clients to postpone or cancel orders, leadingsales volumes to contract more sharply and productionlevels to decline for the first time in the year-to-date.Clearly, the longer this war is drawn out for, the greaterare the chances of France's manufacturing sectorslipping into stagflation." This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.