Manufacturing, services sectors lag in January

The country’s manufacturing and services lagged in January judging by the movement in the Purchase Managers Index (PMI) compiled by the Central Bank. 

It said the Manufacturing Sector PMI recorded 51.7 index points in January from 59.1 index points in December 2017. 

“This indicates that the Manufacturing activities expanded at a slower rate in January compared to December 2017 after the seasonal peak observed during last two months of the year 2017. This was mainly driven by the slowdown in the Production and New Orders sub-indices,” the Central Bank said. 

Further, the Employment sub-index also slowed down during the month as compared to December 2017 while Stock of Purchases subindex contracted during the month. 

The Suppliers’ Delivery Time sub-index lengthened at a slower rate compared to previous month. Overall, all the sub-indices of PMI except from stock of purchases sub-index recorded values above the neutral 50.0 threshold signalling an overall expansion in January 2018. 

Moreover, the Expectation for activities indicates an improvement for the next three months.

The Services Sector PMI recorded 56.6 index points in January 2018 from 61.2 index points in December 2017. This indicates that the Services sector activities expanded in January 2018, albeit at a slower rate, mainly supported by New Businesses, Business Activity, Backlogs of Work and Expectations for Activity sub-indices. 

Employment declined in January 2018, partly causing Backlogs of Work to continue its expansion for the second consecutive month. The passive expansion in New Businesses and Business Activity at the beginning of the year could be due to seasonality since the activity level is compared with a strong activity level in December 2017. The increase in Business Activity was mainly observed in Financial Services sector due to expansion of service delivery channels. Employment declined due to non-recruitment for vacancies of retired and resigned employees, mainly in Financial Services, Health Care and Real Estate Activities sectors. Expected Labour Cost increased due to routine salary increments in 2018 including collective agreements, the Central Bank said.