- Prior 56.9
Spain's manufacturing sector continues to expand at a decent pace, though the outlook/confidence took a hit to the lowest since May 2020 amid the Russia-Ukraine war exacerbating supply chain and inflation issues. The headline reading belies some less than optimistic details as output growth slumped to its lowest in 14 months while new export orders dropped by the most since May 2020.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine also saw a sharp rise in price pressures, with input costs jumping by the most since November last year. S&P Global notes that:
“Unsurprisingly given the uncertainty and instability caused by the war in Ukraine, the Spanish manufacturing sector expanded at a slower rate during March. New order flows slipped into contraction, whilst output increased at a much slower rate.
“Moreover, production continued to be hampered by acute delivery delays, reflective of not only challenges in global supply chains but also domestic transport strikes as protests mounted within Spain over the high price of fuel.
“Inevitably, price pressures have again intensified and, combined with the war situation in Ukraine, confidence amongst firms has dropped dramatically to levels last seen during the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
