The dip in February comes after a very sharp increase in January (over December)

  • February 53.4
  • January 55.6 .... nope, revised down to 54.4 .... not quite as sharp as initially thought then
  • December 51.2

NZ activity continues strong, just not quite as s strong as we have become accustomed to.

For the February survey:

  • hot weather & storms affected meat and dairy processing

BNZ Senior Economist, Doug Steel

  • "There is no doubting the Performance of Manufacturing Index has slowed over recent months. That said, February's PMI is hardly weak in exactly matching its long term average,"