Business NZ manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for June, higher to 53.3
- prior was 52.6, revised from 52.7
- manufacturing sector now being in expansion for 21 consecutive months
- Four of the five seasonally adjusted main diffusion indices were in expansion during June
- Production (55.9) 0.8 points higher than May.
- New orders (50.9) continued to fall, dipping another 0.4 points and at its lowest level since December 2012
- Employment (52.9) also dipped, down 0.6 points from May
- Finished stocks (49.7) fell 2.6 points
- Deliveries (55.1) rose 3.6 points – highest result since March.
BusinessNZ’s executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard:
- “Overall production levels remain healthy, and have been very consistent for the last three months.
- Employment levels continue to show more people entering the sector, while the largest proportion of comments received are still positive.
- As mentioned last month, the fundamentals of both the PMI and other indicators of the economy still point to positive activity. However, the continued strength of the New Zealand dollar, as well as new order levels continuing to fall, mean there are elements of the sector that need to be watched closely in the months ahead.”
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While the OMi continues to expand, we got a potentially conflicting signal from the ANZ Truckometer a little earlier, it fell again; ANZ think NZ will see an “easing in quarterly growth in Q2″, but did go on to say that “the Light Traffic Index then indicates a potential rebound”. If the trend is your friend in economic growth then I’ll be erring on the side of continued good growth in NZ and continued RBNZ hikes … and the uptrend continuing for the NZ dollar (but aware that we are approaching Ausgust 2011 highs).
