Fra Markit – Læs hele meddelelsen
The rate of growth of the global manufacturing sector slowed to a three-month low at the start of the second quarter. This was signalled by the J.P.Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI™ – a composite index1 produced by J.P.Morgan and IHS Markit in association with ISM and IFPSM – falling to 52.8 in April, down from 53.0 in March.
The slowdown indicated by the headline index was only mild, however, with the pace of improvement still close to the average for the opening quarter. The PMI has registered above the no-change mark of 50.0 in each of the past 14 months. Please note that later than usual release dates meant April 2017 PMI data were not available for Vietnam or Myanmar. Sector data highlighted solid improvements in operating conditions across the consumer, intermediate and investment goods categories.
Rates of expansion slowed in the first two industries, but accelerated to a three-month high in the latter. In most cases, developed nations recorded stronger rates of improvement than emerging markets. Although the US saw a mild deceleration, this was offset by accelerations in the euro area (six-year high) Japan (one of the fastest seen over the past three years) and the UK (three-year high).
The slowdown in emerging markets was mainly centred on China, which expanded only marginally and at the weakest pace in seven months. April data pointed to slower growth of both global manufacturing production and new orders.
However, there was slightly better news regarding international trade flows, as the rate of increase in new export business edged higher. There were signs that current new order growth was still sufficient to test capacity, as backlogs of work rose for the eleventh straight month.
