businessmen enjoy the good weather at lunch time under the arche de la defense in the financial and business district west of paris as warm and sunny weather continues in france march 13 2014 reuterscharles platiau paris june 3 reuters  growth in business activity in frances dominant services sector weakened in may compared to april a monthly survey showed as the positive effect of fewer covid19 restrictions were offset by inflationary pressures data compiler sp global said its final purchasing managers index pmi for frances services sector fell to 583 points in may from 589 in april a flash estimate had forecast a may services pmi figure of 584 points any figure above 50 indicates expansion ihs markits overall composite pmi index which includes the services and manufacturing sectors also fell to 570 points in may from 576 in april a flash estimate had forecast a may composite pmi figure of 571 points data published earlier this week showed the french economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter as consumers struggled to cope with surging inflation that reached a recordhigh rate of 58 over 12 months in may read more the direction of travel for the french economy appears to be critically dependent on what happens in the service sector given the notable range of headwinds facing goods producers at present in the nearterm survey indicators suggest that economic growth is likely to continue said sp global market intelligence senior analyst joe hayes nevertheless we must remain mindful of the downside risks at play sooner or later the boost from fewer covid19 restrictions will begin to peter out spillover risks from manufacturing weakness as well as output price inflation which hit a new series peak in may also pose sizeable threats to demand for services added hayes