The manufacturing PMI report was a decent reading. The PMI came out at 52.7, up from 52.1 in October.
The head-line figure still suggests only a slow recovery in the manufacturing sector. But most sub-indices, such as export orders, moved in the right direction, which is encouraging. The only weak spot is the sub-index for inventories which held down the overall PMI by 0.7 index points.
Thus, despite some weak signals from trading partners, one should not be too gloomy on the situation in the manufacturing sector. Recall also that last week the NIER’s manufacturing confidence indicator (MCI) jumped to its highest level in three years.
Details, November:
PMI: 52.7 (Nordea 52, consensus 52.5, prior 52.1)
Order intake: 53.6 (prior 52.2)
Export orders: 54.2 (52.2)
Production: 55.6 (prior 52.3)
Employment: 51.5 (prior 50.3)
Inventories: 53.9 (prior 46.5)
Production plans 6 months ahead: 63.5 (prior 58.6)
Nordea