Manufacturing Lift for Central Region

Media Release

August 13, 2009

Manufacturing Lift for Central Region

A positive result for both production (54.0) and new orders (58.0) has seen the Central Region record its highest overall manufacturing activity level (52.7) since May 2008, according to the July BNZ Capital - Business NZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).

Unsurprisingly, finished stocks (45.0) have not grown. However, employment (48.0) recovered from last month’s low, and while still not showing expansion, it is getting closer to neutral.

A PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining.

Paul Winter, CEO of EMA Central is heartened by the result which he hopes will lead further improvement in the sector   

“It is encouraging to see the number of positive comments from manufacturers in the Central Region almost equalling negative comments.

“For some time this has not been the case with negative comments outweighing positive by around two to one.”

Nationally the seasonally adjusted PMI for July stood at 49.7 – agonisingly close to expansion. This was up 3.2 points from June, and followed an identical improvement from May to June.  The last time activity was higher than July 2009 was April 2008 (50.9).

PMI values for July in the years 2003-2008 ranged from 48.1 to 58.8, with an average score for the previous July results of 52.7.

ENDS

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