New Zealand’s manufacturing sector continued in expansion mode during April, according to the latest BNZ – BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI).
The seasonally adjusted PMI for April was 58.4 (a PMI reading above 50.0 indicates that manufacturing is generally expanding; below 50.0 that it is declining). While this was 5.2 points down from March, it was still the second highest result since July 2020 when New Zealand came out of lockdown.
BusinessNZ’s executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard said that the April result was another positive outcome for the sector. Despite the lower level of expansion in comparison with March, it would have been surprising if the April result had shown even higher expansion levels.
“The two major sub-index values of Production (64.5) and New Orders (60.9) continued to be the main drivers of the April result, with the latter coming off its historic level of expansion. Both Employment (52.7) and Finished Stocks (55.2) remained at similar levels to March, while Deliveries of Raw Materials (52.4) decreased 10.6 points”.
“Given the lower level of expansion for the current month, the proportion of those outlining positive comments decreased from 58% in March to 53.2% in April. Comments continued to outline demand side influences, with increased enquiries and orders”.
BNZ Senior Economist, Craig Ebert stated that “firms’ commentary to April’s PMI noted improving conditions internationally, in addition to many global PMIs clearly pointing to economic activity expanding strongly in significant portions of the world right now”.
