New Zealand’s manufacturing sector saw expansion in activity lift during May, according to the BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).
The seasonally adjusted PMI for May was 58.5 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining). This was 1.6 points higher than April, and the highest value since January 2016. Overall, the sector has remained in expansion in all months since October 2012.
BusinessNZ’s executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard said that the lift in expansion for May more than eclipsed the dip for the previous month.
“The May value for new orders (61.2) remained above the 60-point range, and the highest three-monthly level of expansion for that sub-index since 2004. Production (59.7) lifted 2.7 points, while employment (55.3) rose to its highest value since October 2014”.
“Mirroring the overall result, the proportion of positive comments rose to 69.4%, compared with 64.7% in April and 67.2% in March”.
BNZ Senior Economist, Doug Steel, said “the PMI has now pushed up to its highest level in 16 months, which makes the mild slowdown we saw at the beginning of the year a distant memory”.
