New Zealand - BusinessNZ manufacturing PMI for January 49.6 (prior 49.3)

New Zealand business-advocacy body

• PMI second consecutive month in contraction

BusinessNZ's executive director for manufacturing Catherine Beard:

• "Looking at the key sub-index values, new orders (50.6) is still only just managing to keep its head above water, while production (49.9) has now been in contraction for three consecutive months. Employment (46.9) also took a hit to reach its lowest mark since July 2019.""The proportion of negative comments in January (52.5%) picked up from December (44.9%). In terms of the comments made, there were still seasonal effects at play, most notably the Xmas/holiday break. However, there was also some discussion around uncertainty due to the coronavirus."

BNZ Senior Economist, Craig Ebert:

• "in the context of the latest global ructions - this time related to the COVID-19 virus - January's PMI could arguably be read as a relatively decent outcome. At the same time, it is surely too early for the PMI to capture the economic consequences of the virus".