Activity in New Zealand’s manufacturing sector for November experienced a similar result to the previous month, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).
The seasonally adjusted PMI for November was 53.5 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining). Although this was 0.2 points lower than October, it remained just above the long-term average of 53.4 for the survey.
BusinessNZ’s executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard said that it was pleasing to see activity in November remain close to the October result.
“With two of the three months for the last quarter on 2018 producing results around the long-term average, this bodes well for the year to end on more of a positive note after lacklustre results during the middle of 2018.
In addition, the proportion of positive comments for November (60.1%) improved from October (58.3%). Seasonal factors were obviously a major discussion point, although a number pointed to increased general customer demand and sales”.
BNZ Senior Economist, Craig Ebert said that “the improvement in the PMI since July has been underpinned by a pick-up in new orders, which achieved 56.3 in November. This level is usually a good portent that production will expand relatively well in the near term”.