The IHS Markit report released on Monday indicated that the manufacturing sector activities in the euro area have remained in contraction in November.

The final manufacturing PMI came in at 46.9 last month, slightly better than both forecasts and preliminary of 46.6, compared to October’s reading of 45.9, as both output and new orders continued to drop.

Only Greece and France managed to score readings above the 50 benchmark.

“The survey data for the fourth quarter so far are indicating a quarterly rate of contraction in excess of 1% for manufacturing,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.

In the U.K., the manufacturing PMI improved to 46.9 from 45.9 in October, but still remained on the contraction zone, where UK factories slashed jobs at fastest rate since 2012.

“Businesses responded to the delay to Brexit and a fresh injection of uncertainty from the forthcoming general election,” according to Markit’s report.

As of 10:45 GMT, the euro traded near Friday’s top at 0.8536 versus the British pound, ahead of ECB President Christine Lagarde’s testimony before the European Parliament later in the day.