Activity in New Zealand’s manufacturing sector experienced a pick up during April, although still remained in contraction, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).

The seasonally adjusted PMI for April was 48.9 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining). This was up from 46.8 in March, although still lower than the 49.1 recorded in February. The sector has now been in contraction for 14 consecutive months.

BusinessNZ’s Director, Advocacy Catherine Beard said that despite ongoing contraction in the sector, there were a few positive aspects to the April result.

“The key sub-index result of Production (50.8) returned to expansion for the first time since January 2023, as well as Employment (50.8) and Finished Stocks (50.4) also both returning to slight expansion. In contrast, New Orders (45.3) remained firmly in contraction, although showing a slight improvement from March. Despite the small improvement in April, the proportion of negative comments again increased to 69%, compared with 65% in March and 62% in February. An overall lack of sales and orders was the dominant theme in comments, along with a struggling economy”.

BNZ’s Senior Economist Doug Steel said that “the PMI this year to date is consistent with manufacturing GDP trailing year earlier levels. However, the details were a bit more mixed in April, rather than uniformly weak as has been the case over recent months”.