Improves to end 2018, at 55.1 its thighest in 8 months

  • November revised up to 53.7

The long run average for this is 53.4

Main sub-indexes:

  • new orders (56.1)
  • finished stocks (58.6), highest level since the survey began
  • proportion of positive comments for December (60.6%), November 60.1%

BusinessNZ's executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard:

  • December result ensured activity over 2018 kept ahead of the long-term results for the sector
  • "2018 averaged 53.8 in activity, slightly ahead of the overall average of 53.4 since the survey began. However, it was still a noticeable dip in expansion compared with 56.2 over 2017 and 56.0 over 2016."

BNZ:

  • "the latest NZ PMI result is all the more encouraging in the context of slowing growth in global manufacturing. The latter is part of what's casting clouds around international GDP growth expectations, going into 2019".